Ranchi: BJP will launch a protest and hit the streets if the Jharkhand government does not resume stalled paddy procurement from farmers, the party’s state organizing secretary Aditya Sahu said, accusing the Hemant Soren government of not fulfilling its promises and imposing a series of orders that caused problems to the people.
Addressing a press conference, Sahu said, “There is no synergy within the government. While food and civil supplies minister Rameshwar Oraon stalled paddy procurement stating that the crop was still moist, agriculture minister Badal Patralekh remains ignorant about the plight of the farmers and is touring Chhattisgarh. Because of this, our farmers are in distress.”
He added, “During the sowing season, the government failed to provide fertilizers to farmers. Thankfully, the farmers had a good harvest due to good monsoon. Congress, in its poll manifesto, had promised to waive off farm loans within two months of forming government. That did not happen either,” he said.
Sahu said the decision to stall paddy procurement was one among a series of authoritarian calls taken by the Soren government in the last 11 months, which it eventually had to withdraw.
On Thursday, BJP’s Bankura MP Subhash Sarkar, who was appointed the deputy national in-charge of Jharkhand, had announced to release an ‘Aarop Patra’ against the JMM-Congress-RJD government on December 29, which will mark a year of the Soren government.
JMM retorted to Sarkar’s announcement. “They can bring their Aarop Patra, but they should also reflect on the condition they left Jharkhand in. BJP should not preach when thousands of farmers have dug their heels outside Delhi to protest the Centre’s new farm laws,” JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said.