BJP poser to BJD on free power to farm sector

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government criticised the Centre for neglecting the farmers of the Sate by denying them higher support price for paddy, the BJP asked the ruling BJD to explain its failure to supply free power to farm sector even after staying in power for more than 18 years.

“If Telangana, one of the youngest State in the country, could provide free power to its farmers, why not the Naveen Patnaik Government which boast of surplus power?,” State BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma questioned the BJD.

Holding the State Government responsible for the current crisis in the agriculture sectors, Sharma said the anti-farmer policies of the State Government has left them in dire straits resulting in suicide. As the BJD has miserably failed to solve the problems of farmers it started blaming the Centre.

Khainu Bagarti, the Bargarh farmer who committed suicide after failing to save his crops for lack of irrigation, is one of the many victims of government apathy. The lift irrigation point on which he and other farmers were depending remained non-functional due to erratic power supply.

Though Bagarti brought this to the notice of Wesco officials, the power distribution company, time and again, did nothing. The State Government has not taken any action against the erring officials, Sharma said.

The BJP leader asked the State Government to give year-wise details of the irrigation potential created since 2000. In its 2014 election manifesto, the BJD had promised to create additional irrigation potential of 10 lakh hectares.

Sharma also sought to know the progress made in providing separate feeder to agriculture and fisheries sectors and the number of sub-stations set up to improve quality of power supplied to the farm sector.