Naveen To Join Farmers’ Dharna In New Delhi On Jan 8

New Delhi: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will join the protest sit-in dharna by Biju Krushak Janata Dal in New Delhi on January 8 for fulfilment of demand for an increase in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.

Briefing mediapersons at a press meet here on Friday, BJD Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya and MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said during the last general elections in 2014, the BJP in its election manifesto had promised to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of the food grains and implement the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee. Unfortunately, BJP has not kept its election commitment till date.

“We have been demanding an increase in the MSP of paddy at Rs 2930 per quintal. A few days back, the Odisha Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution supported by all political parties including the BJP and the Congress requesting the Centre to fix the MSP of paddy at the aforesaid rate. But there is n response from the Centre. Even an all-party delegation of the State Assembly had requested the Prime Minister to allow at least five minutes for a discussion to apprise him of the problems faced by the farmers of Odisha on this issue. But the Prime Minister had no time for the delegation. In protest against this, not only we but the farmers of all sections have been agitating in the state,” they said.

They further said that the Biju Krushak Janata Dal has decided to a stage a daylong protest sit-dharna at the Talkatora Stadium here on January 8 which will be attended by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

“As decided, a delegation of the BJD led by the Chief Minister, will meet the President Ramnath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan in the evening on January 6 and submit him a memorandum on this matter,” they added.

Reacting to the statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, while quoting media reports at a public meeting in Khurda during his visit to Odisha on December 24 last year, had said that the state government has created only 22000 hectares of irrigation out of the 10  lakh hectares it had promised in 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a letter to the former on Thursday had informed him that the state government since 2014 has created an additional irrigation potential of 7.8 lakh hectares and it is on course to surpass the target of 10 lakh hectares.

He had also said that from 2014, Rs 26,889 crore has been spent in the irrigation and water sector with a contribution of Rs 1211 crore (4.5%) from the Centre through the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKGY) while the state government has provided Rs 10,196 crore for this sector in the current fiscal.

The Chief Minister had also informed the Prime Minister that the state government with its own programme has created 46 Mega Lift Irrigation Project (MILP) in 54,472 hectares, 53,576 deep bore wells in 2,67,880 hectares, 5837 community lift points in 1,29,764 hectares and 8335 check dams in 97,694 hectares while the farmers are physically getting water from these  projects.