Farmers and their organisations have strongly protested the attempt of the Central Government to privatise the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The farmers on Thursday organised meetings in different places including in front of the FCI office here and warned the Government against the adverse consequences of its move.
Leaders of the Paschim Odisha Krushak Surakshya Sangathan (POKSS), including convenor Ashok Pradhan, said, “The three “Black farm Acts” of the Central Government will create untold problems for the farmers of the country."The entire nation is restive. And the fresh attempt to minimise the power of FCI is nothing but to push them to untold miseries further, they said.
The FCI is the biggest store house of the country that even comes to the need of the country and its people during all crises like drought, famine, flood, cyclone, war and all other bad times.
But instead of developing such an organisation, the Central Government is making all-out efforts to hand over it to the private sector, alleged Pradhan. “This will do nothing but end up triggering a food crisis all over the country,” he warned.
“When the Government is speaking of ‘food security’ to all, why then it thinks of privatisation of FCI,” asked Bibhu Prasad Patnaik, another farmer leader. It is high time for both the State and Central Governments to ensure minimum support price (MSP) of different agricultural products as per the guidelines of Swaminathan Committee report is guaranteed, Patnaik suggested.