Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s State President Basant Panda on Tuesday said that his party will waive farm loan if it comes to power in Odisha in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Alleging that there have been gross irregularities in the paddy procurement centres (mandi) in the state, he said his party would launch ‘mandi chala abhiyan’ (mandi march) from December 18 till January 7 and burn the effigy of the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare minister Surya Narayan Patro at all the mandis in the state. ‘On January 8, we will gherao the State Secretariat and demand waiver of farm loan,” Panda told mediapersons here.
He also announced that the BJP will waive the farm loan and provide interest-free loan to the farmers if it is voted to power in the state assembly elections.
Panda said farmers are being deprived of getting the actual price of the paddy due to the “unholy nexus of the state government with the millers” as the ruling party is trying to meet its poll expenses from them. “This is the high time that the state government should hike the minimum support price of the paddy instead of going to New Delhi,” he pointed out.
Reacting to BJP’s ‘mandi chala abhiyan’ programme, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said the district administration will take appropriate action against officials concerned if there is any irregularity.
He maintained that BJP is trying to get political mileage on the issue of farm loan waiver. Deb said BJP has decided to gherao the State Secretariat on January 8 because BJD has already announced to stage demonstration before the Parliament in New Delhi on the same day. “The saffron party believes in lip service and knows very well how to mislead the people. The party is panicked as it has been rejected by the people of Odisha,” Deb observed.
Meanwhile, talking to the media during the day, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena urged the state government to waive the farm loan with immediate effect.
Terming as “farce” BJD’s decision to take up the paddy MSP issue and stage demonstration before the Parliament in New Delhi in the first week of January, he said the state government is trying to fool the farmers.
“The state government should take a decision to waive the farm loan at the earliest by convening a special cabinet meeting failing which the Congress will boycott the government and will not cooperate with the BJD MLAs and ministers. We will gherao these leaders and resort to peaceful agitations. If the government stays adamant on its stand, let it resign else the people will throw it out of power after four months,” Jena added.
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