Farmers of Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts of southern districts under the aegis of the Congress party on Wednesday organsied a protest rally against the State Government’s apathetic attitude towards them by keeping paddy stocks along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg in front of the State Assembly.
“The State Government has completely failed to facilitate procurement of paddy from the farmers. Farmers in these four districts are still victims of distress sale of paddy. While a target of 21,000 quintal of paddy procurement has been set for Nabarangpur district only 10,000 quintal has been procured so far,” said Congress leader and former Nabarangpur MP Pradip Majhi.
Coming down on the Government for avoiding farmers’ issues PCC president Prasad Harichandan alleged that the farmers’ community is the worst loser in the ruling BJD regime.
“Farmers are getting united against the State Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards them. A massive rally of farmers will be staged soon to press the Government to sort out their issues,” added Harichandan. Hitting out the Government, former PCC president Jayadev Jena said around 4,000 farmers have committed suicide in the BJD regime only due to the negligence of the Government.
Almost all the senior leaders like Niranjan Patnaik, Sk Matlub Ali, Chandrasekhar Sahoo, Chiranjib Biswal, Taraprasad Bahinipati participated in the protest rally and warned the Government to address the issues of farmers at the earliest.
When the protesters tried to march towards the Assembly by breaking security barricade, the police arrested Pradip Majhi and some supporters. later, they were released.