A team of BJP national leaders on Friday visited Bargarh district and interacted with farmers regarding the pest attack on their crops and other problems they are facing.
The team comprising MPs Sabitribai Thakur and Om Prakash Yadav, BJP Kissan Morcha national general secretary P Sugnakar Rao, secretary Sambhu Kumar, vice president Maheswar Sahu and Andhra Pradesh BJP Krushak Morcha Uddi Tirupati Rao along with MlA Pradip Purohit went to Chamarpada in Sohela block, Jaring in Bijepur block, Dhaunrakhenda in Barpali, Kalapani, Saranda, Nuakhairpali in Sadar block and discussed with the farmers about problems.
The team not only visited the houses of the farmers who committed suicide due to crop loss on brown plant hoppers’ attack but also visited the affected paddy fields. They talked to family members of deceased farmers, Khageswar Meher, Brunda Sahu and P Naveen Kumar, who committed suicide recently.
“It is a fact that there has been a major crop loss in the rain-fed and irrigated areas in Bargarh district and also in the Hirakud command area. But Odisha Government has not taken adequate precautions to save crops and farmer suicides. As a result, many farmers have committed suicide and others are going through difficult times,” said Sabitribai Thakur and others after the field visit.
“Why the Government kept silent after knowing the pest problem is still a mystery for us. The people of western Odisha area solely depend on agriculture.
In such circumstances, taking casual view to farmers’ problem is nothing but an unpardonable offence,” said Thakur.
She said the team would submit its report party’s national president Amit Shah who would take up the matter with Union Agriculture Minister. “The Union Government will do its best to curb such a menace in Odisha,” Yadav said.
Meanwhile, deceased farmer Brunda Sahu’s daughters Preeti and Pushpa refuted the charge of the BJP’s involvement in their father’s suicide.
“Our father had himself taken the video to show the Government’s failure. The BJP is no way involved in it,” they said.
They lamented that labour Minister Sushant Singh, who belongs to the district, was yet to meet their family. “Instead of helping us, he is sitting in Bhubaneswar and making irrelevant statements,” they alleged.