BARGARH: The ongoing protest by farmers of Bargarh over pending kharif paddy procurement entered its third day on Wednesday, with the agitators continuing their sit-in outside the district collector’s office with political parties and local organisations extending support to the cause.
Over the past two days, members of the BJD and Aam Aadmi Party along with local outfits Kosal Sena and Samvidhan Surakhya Manch have visited the protest site and sat with the agitating farmers to express their solidarity.
Earlier on Monday evening, tension had briefly escalated after police removed the sacks of paddy dumped on the collectorate premises and detained several farmers who resisted the move. However, the detained farmers were released within a few hours, following which the protest resumed and has since been continuing peacefully outside the collectorate.
Despite the growing support, the farmers alleged that no senior representative of the district administration has come forward to hold discussions with them so far.
Farmer leader Ramesh Mahapatra said, “Even the Bargarh MLA has admitted in the Assembly that farmers in the district have suffered significantly this year due to mismanagement and irregularities in the token system. He admitted that around 1,200 farmers were left out and assured of making provisions to procure their paddy. But in reality, the number of left-out is even higher.”
Mahapatra further said the farmers are now hoping for urgent intervention as registration for the rabi procurement season has already begun. “Farmers are in urgent need of money. We hope the government will take immediate steps to resolve the issue and ensure procurement of the pending paddy,” he added.
In Bargarh district, a total of 1.64 lakh farmers were registered for paddy procurement. However, 4,804 farmers were excluded despite submitting all required documents. After a series of protests and intervention of the district MLAs, some farmers subsequently received tokens and sold their produce. But many are still waiting to sell their produce.