The BJP staged protest in front of the Nuapada Collector’s office on Tuesday condemning the misbehaviour shown to women by police by removing their black scarves and stoles in Sundargarh during the Chief Minister’s recent visit.
An effigy of CM Naveen Patnaik was burnt and a memorandum addressed to the Governor was submitted to the ADM.
“Naveen Patnaik has no respect for women. A Government which is incapable of protecting dignity of women has no right to rule the State,” said BJP leaders.
The party leaders also raised the issue of nonpayment of insurance dues to the farmers. “Farmers have not yet been paid their insurance dues of 2015-16. The crop loss during Kharif 2015-16 was more than 70 per cent in most panchayats of the district, but the loss has been shown less than the actual,” said BJP Krushak Morcha district president Sanjay Tiwari. “Most farmers will be deprived of their rightful dues of insurance,” he added.
He pointed out that the district in the meanwhile has received about Rs 90 crore under the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme and banks have been instructed to provide details of farmers for transfer of payment. An amount of Rs 2.12 crore has also been allotted to the district by the State Government for payment of input subsidy to the farmers who have incurred loss during 2015-16 Kharif. A total of 5735 farmers would benefit from this subsidy programme out of which 3,849 are small and marginal farmers.
The farmers would get Rs 100 per quintal of paddy sold to the Government; however, there would be a cap of Rs 5000 for the big farmers irrespective of their paddy quantities sold. “The number of small and marginal farmers identified for this benefit is very meagre. The number of farmers under this category is about 40,000 in the district, and most of them have sold their paddy to middlemen,” said Tiwari.