Pandemonium continues in Odisha House over paddy procurement issues

BHUBANESWAR: Noisy scenes returned to the Assembly on Friday soon after Minister for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Ranendra Pratap Swain completed his statement on the status of paddy procurement in the State with the BJP members staging a walkout in protest.

Congress members also staged a dharna in the well of the House as they were not allowed to raise the issue. Targeting the BJP over the issue, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingha Mishra alleged that it has a tacit understanding with the ruling BJD and was enacting a drama only to bail out the state government from a difficult situation.

Leader of the Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik admitted that it was a mistake to go to the Naveen Nivas for a discussion on the issue after his invitation. “The Chief Minister has betrayed us by inviting us for discussion,” he said and added that the statement of the minister had nothing new except some statistical changes.

Naik also hit out at Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena for his comment ‘politics of sin’ pointing towards the BJP. “We should not have accepted the invitation of the Chief Minister after Jena’s comment. Talks in the Naveen Nivas  was a conspiracy to humiliate us,” he said.

For the first time after six days, question hour could be held in the Assembly smoothly on Friday. Making a statement after the question hour, Swain assured the members that the paddy of all genuine registered farmers will be procured by the government by March 31 after proper investigation.

Stating that several steps have been initiated for smooth procurement of paddy, the minister said that the government prepared to purchase paddy from all genuine registered farmers. He also requested the members to bring to the notice the government if any genuine registered farmer has been left out. He said
that paddy will be purchased from them after investigation.

The minister said that so far, 61.24 lakh tonne of paddy has been procured from registered farmers at a cost of Rs 11,441 crore. The process of paddy procurement is on and will continue till March 31, he said and added that the Chief Minister has directed to ensure that no registered genuine farmer faces any problem while selling paddy.

Swain said that 11.30 lakh registered farmers have sold their paddy to the government against 9.3 lakh farmers during the corresponding period last year. Last year, the state government had purchased 51.73 lakh tonne paddy during the kharif marketing season, he said.