Protest near Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik's house over 'distress' sale of paddy

BHUBANESWAR: Farmers under the aegis of Navnirman Krushak Sangathan (NKS) scuffled with the police near chief minister Naveen Patnaik's residence on Monday while protesting against the distress sale of paddy, resulting in around 30 protesters being detained.
The agitators had brought a tractor carrying sacks of paddy and wanted to dump it in front of Naveen Niwas as a mark of protest, but were stopped from doing so by security personnel deployed there, resulting in the scuffle. The protesters were taken to airport police station and were released after over an hour. During the scuffle, some of the paddy had spilled on to the road and security personnel were seen cleaning it up.
Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said they stopped the protestors from marching towards Naveen Niwas. "They suddenly gathered at the spot. We did not arrest anybody. We detained the protesters and released them later by serving them notices. They will have to appear before the police whenever they are called," Singh said. Mohammad Anwar Alli, a member of NKS, said farmers were forced to go for distress sale of paddy due to the difficult procurement system.
'Govt has failed to ensure paddy is bought at MSP'
Alli said, "The government has failed to ensure that farmers get the minimum support price of Rs 2040 for a quintal of paddy."
He said small farmers sell their paddy for as little as Rs 1200/quintal to middlemen.
"The millers who are procuring paddy at the mandis trim 5-6 kg of paddy per quintal in the name of quality of the grain. At some places, millers trim 8-10 kg. It is illegal and unfortunate," he added.
A woman agitator said the government should streamline the procurement system without harassing the farmers.
"Agriculture has become a loss-making venture due to poor marketing system. We do not need permission to enter Naveen Niwas. He is the chief minister of the state and he should know how helpless farmers are? Instead of selling paddy packets to middlemen at a throwaway price, we had brought them for him," she said.