The BJD on Friday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the Union Government to fix the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,930 per quintal for paddy within seven days in the interests of the farmers.
The ruling party submitted a memorandum, addressed to the President, before Governor Dr SC Jamir after staging a demonstration before the Raj Bhavan here under chairmanship of Biju Krushak Janata Dal State convenor Sushant Singh on the issue.
“Odisha’s economy and social fabric is closely related to agriculture. Bing a major crop, paddy is cultivated over an area of nearly 40 lakh hectares of land every year.
Nearly 90 per cent of the farmers belong to small and marginal category and they entirely depend on paddy cultivation for livelihood. As the MSP fixed by the Union Government is not commensurate with the cost of production, the farmers are deprived of getting a reasonable price for their produce,” the memorandum read.
It further informed that the State Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to recommend the Centre to fix paddy MSP at Rs 2,930 in compliance with the BJP’s election manifesto promising to provide MSP of one and half times the cost of
production.
Though a committee comprising members from the BJD, the Congress, the BJP and the CPI has requested for an appointment with the Prime Minister for submission of a memorandum based on the resolution to enhance the MSP of paddy, unfortunately no confirmation of the date has been received.
Now, the Union Government has unilaterally declared a MSP of Rs 1,550 per quintal of paddy for the year 2107-18. With this, the Union Government has completely neglected the State's demand for justified enhancement of MSP of paddy.
The MSP declared by the Centre would affect farmers of the State who are very often exposed to various natural calamities like drought, flood, cyclone and unseasonal rain.
“We therefore request you to kindly intervene in the matter and direct the Union Government to revise the MSP of paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal within 7 days. Otherwise, we would be compelled to go for a state wide agitation for the interest of the farmers,” said the memorandum signed by a host of ruling party leaders.
Earlier, Ministers, MPs, MlAs and leaders belonging to the ruling party’s various wings participated in the demonstration.