Farmers' issue: Odisha BJP workers scuffle with police in Sambalpur

The row between the rulingBJD and opposition BJP over alleged irregularities in paddyprocurement intensified on Thursday when saffron partyactivists scuffled with the police in their bid to enter theoffice of the Sambalpur Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC).

BJP leaders and workers assembled at Sambalpur toprotest against the state government's alleged irregularitiesin paddy procurement and wanted to discuss the matter with theRDC, officials said.

The scuffle ensued when the police prevented them fromentering the RDC's office.

Thousands of farmers from at least 37 assemblyconstituencies of western Odisha gathered at a rally addressedby senior BJP leaders including the party's Odisha co-in-charge Bijaypal Singh Tomar, state unit president SamirMohanty and Leader of Opposition P K Naik.

Coinciding with the BJP's protest rally in Sambalpur,a delegation of BJD MPs met Union Minister for ConsumerAffairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in NewDelhi demanding immediate release of subsidy amount of Rs6,039 crore pending for disbursement towards paddyprocurement in the state.

The BJD delegation said that it has caused a lot ofproblems for the state government to undertake procurement ofpaddy during the ongoing Kharif marketing season.

The BJP, on the other hand, accused the BJD governmentof harassing farmers by introducing a token system in thepaddy procurement process. The farmers can sale their paddy ingovernment mandis only after getting tokens.

BJP leaders alleged that farmers of western Odisha arefacing problems and are forced to sell their produce at aprice much below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,868per quintal.

''The Narendra Modi govt has raised the MSP of paddy toRs 1,868 per quintal, but the farmers in Odisha are denied theMSP rate,'' a BJP leader alleged.

BJP MP of Bargarh, Suresh Pujari, said that the stategovernment claims that the government has procured 22 per centmore paddy than last year's, but the reality is totallyopposite.

He also opposed the state government's announcement ofa ceiling on farmers to sell 19 quintal of paddy for irrigatedlands and 13 quintal for non-irrigated lands.

BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said that the Odishagovernment has already procured 23 per cent of more paddy ascompared to the corresponding period of last year.

''The BJP is staging demonstration in order to divertattention of people from three farm laws being opposed byfarmers across the country,'' Deb said.