For the second straight day on Friday, farmers in the western region of the State hit streets in Bargarh and Bhawanipatna decrying the State Government’s anti-farmer policy.
A day after farmers of 10 western Odisha districts organised a massive rally and locked the RDC office in Sambalpur, hundreds of aggrieved peasants in Bargarh and Kalahandi district took to the streets demanding immediate disbursement of drought aid, pending input subsidy, crop insurance and bonus on paddy.
Farmers in groups under the banner of Kalahandi Kissan Khet Mazdoor Congress took out a rally from Town Hall in Sadar Block and gheraoed office of the Block Development Officer (BDO) for not paying attention to their issues. They demanded that drought assistance package for the farmers should be disbursed immediately.
“When almost six months have passed into the drought, why the Government is yet to give us our pending crop insurance amountIJ” asked association president Sachidananda Mahakud.
They also handed over a memorandum to the BDO addressed to Governor highlighting their plights.
Similarly, Anchalika Farmers’ Association in Bargarh also organised a protest rally in the town and demanded that their district be declared drought-hit. Besides it urged the Government to pay previous year’s crop insurance to farmers.
They also resorted to road blockade at Sohela for a few hours.