The conditions of farmers in the State are critical and deteriorating day by day due to the apathy of the State and the Central Governments, said senior BJP leader and former Minister Manmohan Samal on Sunday, adding that the policies of the Naveen Patnaik Government have always been anti-farmer.
Samal said the Government recently announced it would not procure rice further from the market. This has forced the farmers to sell paddy in an open market and to businessmen of neighbouring States at a much cheaper rate as they have to buy seeds for kharif crops.
But the irony is that they are buying low-grade seeds supplied by the Government. For the Kharif season, 26 lakh quintals of paddy seeds are needed, but the Government has planned to supply only 6 lakh quintals. The Seeds Corporation which is to supply seeds has got only 3 lakh quintals.
Referring to the corruption in fertilisers, Samal alleged that Nuapada BJD MlA Rajendra Dholkia has been found involved in selling of adulterated and fake fertilisers in western Odisha. It has been noticed that by bringing up spurious materials from States like Chhattisgarh, fertiliser packets are made with the label of branded fertilisers like PPl and DAP and sold to farmers at around Rs 1,300 though it costs only Rs 300.
After the investigation of PPl officials, it has been found that in place of 8,759 packets of fertilisers, 8,445 packets were found in the godown out of which 6,603 packets were of PPl. The company said the rest of 1,842 packets were not their product. It means that 1,842 packets were fake, said Samal.
It is to be noted, he said, that the cases of farmers’ suicide is high in western Odisha due to loss of crops. So, there is need of brining murder charges against the people involved in corruption in matters relating to agriculture and farmers.
“We demand strong action against the concerned MlA and his nephew Amit Dholkia who is absconding.” Samal said in his Press release. “Without the knowledge and permission of district agriculture department, nobody can bring a single packet for stockpiling. So, we also demand strong action against the concerned officials under the Essential Commodities Act at the earliest,” he said.
“We further demand that since the time of farming is on, raids may be conducted on fake fertiliser godowns and action may be taken against hookers, black-marketers and fake fertiliser sellers. Fertiliser sale centres may be opened in every panchayat;” Samal added.