BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today alleged that the package announced by chief minister Naveen Patnaik for the drought hit farmers is meant to hoodwink the people as the State Government cannot provide any assistance till drought is declared formally based on the crop cutting report.
As the state government had not done anything to tackle the situation, the chief minister announced the package and declared drought only after pressure from opposition political parties and other quarters, state unit president KV Singhdeo and former minister Biswabhusan Harichandan told mediapersons here.
Criticising the state government for not cooperating with the central team which visited drought affected areas, Harichandan referred to a statement by agriculture minister Pradip Maharathi that such a team was not necessary. "It seems that the state government is capable of tackling the situation without the assistance of the Centre," he said.
Harichandan demanded that the state government should bring out a white paper on drought with details of what steps has been taken by it for the assistance of farmers. Besides, he said that a meeting of all political parties should be convened to discuss the severe drought. Families of farmers who have committed suicide should be given an assistance of `10 lakh each from the chief minister's relief fund (CMRF), he said.
Alleging that the state government has taken the situation very lightly, Singhdeo criticised it for leaving out from the list of drought affected districts Balangir and Bargarh from where maximum number of farmer suicide cases have been reported. Four Western Odisha districts were included only after pointed out by the opposition political parties, he said.
Singhdeo criticised the state government for soaring prices of pulses. Stating that the Centre had proposed setting up price stabilisation fund with 50 percent assistance from it. However, the state government did not respond to the situation leading to the situation.
Besides, the state government had ignored a letter from the Centre asking it to place its indent for pulses, he said.