The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Pratap Keshari Deb on Wednesday refuted the allegation of Opposition members that paddy procurement process had not started in the State forcing the farmers for distress sale of paddy. However, being dissatisfied over the reply of the Minister, opposition Congress staged a walkout.
The issue of delay in opening of mandis for procurement of paddy and distress sale of paddy by farmers came in for a marathon four hours’ discussion in the Assembly in form of admissibility of an adjournment motion. Participating in the discussion, the Opposition members came down heavily on the Government, stating that mandis had not been opened and the farmers were resorting to distress sale.
leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, Congress members Anup Sai, Gobardhan Das, Sadhu Nepak and Duryodhan Garadia, among others, alleged that the Government had no concern for the farmers. Even two months after the procurement season, so far the Government had not yet opened mandis. In protests, the farmers were resorting to strike and blocking roads at many places. BJP member Jayanaryan Mishra and Independent member Pratap Sarangi also flayed the Government for failing to open mandis for paddy procurement.
Participating in the debate, Treasury Bench members Prafulla Samal, Prasanta Kumar Muduli and Samir Ranjan Das said the Government had taken several steps for paddy procurement and strengthen the infrastructure in the mandis and had urged the Central Government to relax the FAQ norms for paddy procurement as paddy crop had been affected due to continuous rains and Phailin and subsequent floods.
In his reply to the debate, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Deb denied the allegations of the Opposition and asserted that the Government was serious about the problems of the farmers and had already formulated a procurement policy and operational guidelines. Deb said paddy procurement had already started in six districts of western Odisha such as Baragarh, Boudh, Kalahandi, Nuapada , Subarnapur and Sambalpur and there was no distress sale. In the second phase, he said procurement would start in Balangir, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Rayagada and Sonepur in the first week of December, he informed.
While the procurement would be made in December in most of the other districts, paddy procurement in Kendrapara and Cuttack would be done in the first week January next year, he further said. Stating that paddy crop was affected by cyclonic storm Phailin and subsequent floods in 18 districts and by rain in three districts such as Baragarh, Kalahandi and Sambalpur, the Minister said that on his request a Central team had assessed the quality of the paddy in the affected districts and hoped that the team would make relaxation in FAQ norms for paddy procurement. However, not being satisfied with the reply, opposition Congress members staged a walkout.