BHUBANESWAR: The Opposition today walked out of the House over the emotive issue of farmers’ suicides and distress sale of paddy charging the Government with being insensitive to these problems. The Government is soft towards the rice millers, the Opposition alleged while the Congress demanded a House committee to look into the issues. For its part, the Government stuck to its guns that the suicides are not agriculture-related and there is no distress sale of paddy. In a written reply, Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout said not a single suicide by farmers in the State was crop-related. Dubbing the Government as “anti-farmer” and holding it responsible for these suicides, the Congress and the BJP walked out. Despite drought in 17 districts, there has been good paddy harvest in most of western Orissa, the Opposition maintained. This has led to large-scale distress sale as the Government has taken no step for procurement. Though the MSP has been fixed at ` 1,030 per quintal, the farmers get only ` 600 to ` 700. Participating in the discussion on the admissibility of adjournment motion notice, Nihar Mahanand (Cong) said farmers in large numbers have taken to the streets as nowhere the market yards are functioning. Alleging that millers are calling the shots, his colleague Sadhu Nepak said the issues can’t be resolved till the Government admitted that many farmers ended their lives after being unable to bear the crop loss and repay bank loans. Farmers are waiting at different ‘mandis’ to sell their produce, but there is none to purchase. BJP member Jaynarayan Mishra accused the Government of not giving adequate attention to the problem. No official, entrusted with procurement, visits the market yards. The agents and the sub-agents of the traders purchase paddy from the farmers at a much lower price than MSP fixed by the Government, he said and demanded that the market yards be developed. Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh charged that the Government is ignoring the interests of farmers to placate the millers and demanded that a House committee be set up look into the matter. Making a statement, Minister of State for Food Supplies Sarada Prasad Nayak denied distress sale. The Government, he said, has been procuring paddy from farmers through its agencies. Nayak claimed that for the first time, the Government has initiated moves to strengthen Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) which have alone procured 8,110 tonnes of paddy.