The State Assembly witnessed ruckus and adjournments for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday as Opposition Congress and BJP members insisted on demanding House Committee to probe farmer suicide cases and passing of an all-party resolution fixing minimum support price (MSP) at Rs 2,800 per a quintal of paddy in the House.
As the House met for the day, Opposition MlAs reiterated the House Committee demand and then rushed into the Well of the House as they did not get any response from Speaker Nirnajan Pujari.
Unable to run proceedings, Pujari adjourned the House for one hour till 11.31 am.
But during Zero Hour, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra raised the MSP issue and demanded that an all-party resolution be passed fixing MSP at Rs 2,800 per a quintal of paddy and the same be sent to the Union Government for consideration.
“This Government had promised to give one and a half time of the production cost of paddy as MSP to farmers. BJP legislature Party leader KV Singh Deo had yesterday put a challenge to the Government to bring and pass of an all-party resolution on MSP. Congress has been demanding the same for long. Hence, the House should pass a resolution fixing MSP at Rs 2,800 soon for interest of farmers,” demanded Mishra.
Mishra said that suicides of farmers could be controlled if they got better price of paddy.
Singh Deo too reiterated that his party is in favour a resolution to prot4ec farmers’ interest.
Many other opposition and BJD MlAs, inlcuding Amar Prasad Satpahty and Mahesh Sahoo, too spoke in favour of the resolution.
However, the Speaker didn’t give any ruling in this regard. In protest, Congress and BJP members rushed into the Well of the House and shouted slogans. Unable to run the proceedings further, the Speaker adjourned the House at 12.54 pm till 3 pm.
During the afternoon session, Expenditure estimate of Rs 758,27,33,000 relating to the Planning and Convergence Department was passed after a debate.