BHUBANESWAR: EVEN as the shutdown by Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) received partial response in the State on Thursday, opposition Congress and the ruling BJD found their own interpretation of ‘success’ in the farmers’ strike.  

Alleging that BJD has completely failed to provide minimum basic facilities to lakhs of small and marginal farmers of the State, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik said the bandh called by NNKS was a just a trailer and the full movie will be released with the ouster of Naveen Patnaik Government in the upcoming elections.

Niranjan announced that the guarantee card launched by president of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Rahul Gandhi will be implemented if the party comes to power in the State.

He said a Congress Government in Odisha will waive all farm loans, raise minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to `2600 per quintal and provide bonus on MSP for pulses, give solar pumps to farmers for irrigation and provide financial assistance to farmers for five years.  “The Congress will work hard to bring back smiles on the faces of our ‘annadatas’,” the OPCC chief said.

Questioning the State Government’s propaganda that it is taking care of farmers by launching Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, Niranjan said the Government should now clarify why farmers supported the bandh call given by NNKS.

On the other hand, describing the bandh call given by NNKS as BJP sponsored, the ruling BJD thanked farmers for the lukewarm response to the strike.

“It is ironic that while lakhs of farmers attended and supported Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Bargarh meeting, only 400 people across Odisha, many of them not even farmers, were on the streets to support the bandh call,” BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.

“This shows that the conspiracy of BJP has failed,” he said.During the bandh, the issue of BJP-led Centre not increasing the MSP for paddy and non-implementation of Swaminathan Commission report was not raised, thereby exposing that the shutdown was orchestrated by BJP to save its own failures and face, Patra added.