Demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 2,930 and an extra Rs 500 bonus per quintal of paddy, Pradesh Kissan Congress chief Amiya Pattanayak on Friday alleged that both the Modi Government at the Centre and the Naveen Patniak Government in the State have created a mess on paddy procurement. While at least three lakh famers have registered to sell their paddy to the Government, because of the defective policies of the both Union and State Governments, the farmers are unable to sell their product whereas middlemen are getting the benefits, he alleged.
“When farmers are suffering, the ruling parties BJD in the State and BJP at the Centre are trading charges against each other. It is quit unfortunate that while small States like Chhattisgarh could purchase 93 lakh MT of paddy, Odisha did only 77 lakh MT,” he said.