BJD, BJP clash over paddy sale
BHUBANESWAR: Politics over paddy procurement turned murkier with leaders of the ruling BJD and BJP engaging in a war of words over it.
As the opposition BJP launched a protest march in Sambalpur on Thursday against the Naveen Patnaik government against gross irregularities in paddy procurement, the ruling BJD on Friday hit back at the BJP saying the opposition’s tactics is to divert attention from farmers’ agitation in New Delhi. Addressing a news conference here, BJD spokesperson Shreemayee Mishra said not a single grain of paddy of genuine farmers will be left for procurement and the BJD government guarantees this.
“There has been a record bumper crop in Odisha and lakhs of farmers have benefited with high paddy procurement. In 2018-19, altogether 65.5 lakh metric tonne of paddy was procured and Rs 11,400 crore was transferred to the farmers’ accounts while in 2019-20, the volume of procurement increased to 70.56 lakh MT and Rs 12,808 crore was transferred to farmers’ accounts,” said Mishra, adding over 35 lakh MT of paddy have been procured so far in the kharif season.
Briefing reporters in Sambalpur, leader of opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik said they are up in arms as farmers are not able to sell their paddy despite tokens being issued to them. “We will continue our protest till the government resumes procurement. It is so arrogant that none of their officials turned up for discussion with us,” said Naik.