BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly Committee headed by Speaker Pradip Amat on Friday decided to again seek appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to place the demand for a hike in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.“A delegation of the House Committee would like to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the MSP of paddy,” Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout said after the House Committee meeting, chaired by the Speaker.
Though the committee had earlier sought an appointment from the Prime Minister Office (PMO) twice to meet the Prime Minister, it did not receive any reply. Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Narasingh Mishra said though earlier the Assembly Secretariat sought appointment from the PMO, this time the Speaker will write to the Prime Minister in this regard. The two letters seeking appointment from the PMO were not even acknowledged, he said.
Government Chief Whip Amar Prasad Satpathy said, the House Committee decided to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the issue of hike in minimum support price on paddy even though the Prime Minister Office wanted the memorandum to be submitted through the Resident Commissioner of Odisha Government at New Delhi.
Sources said the issue will be discussed in the House to decide on the next course of action if no response is received from PMO before November 28, when the winter session of Assembly begins.
The Assembly, had on March 25, adopted an unanimous resolution recommending the State Government to demand fixing of minimum support price on paddy at `2930 per quintal. Though appointments with the Prime Minister were sought twice after the unanimous resolution was passed in the House, the PMO did not respond to the letters.
The Centre had fixed MSP on paddy at `1550 per quintal on June 20 last increasing it by only ` 80 giving rise to strong criticism from the opposition political parties who alleged that the Prime Minister had failed to fulfil the promise of fixing minimum support price at one and a half times of the production cost. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had described the hike as ‘totally disappointing’.
The meeting was attended by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha, Minister for Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Surya Narayan Patro, BJD MLAs Sanjay Dasburma and Padmanabha Behera and Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan from the BJP.