PARADIP:Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout allegedly berated farmers who were staging agitation over crop loss due to untimely rains at Kujang here on Sunday.Sources said Rout attended a meeting of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana at Kujang block. After distributing houses to local beneficiaries, he was on his way to Paradip when irate farmers staged demonstration at Santara Chowk on Cuttack-Paradip State highway. The agitators showed the germinated but rotten paddy crop to Rout, who is also the local MLA, and sought compensation. They urged him to see the plight of affected farmers in his Assembly segment.
Farmer leader Chandra Sekhar Satpathy alleged that instead of showing sympathy, the Minister misbehaved with them. “He asked us if we knew how to cultivate properly and charged us with lying about crop loss. The Minister also made other insensitive statements which were strongly criticised by the affected farmers,” he added.
As per reports, low pressure-induced rains in the last few days have damaged paddy crops, which were at harvesting stage, in Kujang, Tirtol, Erasama, Balikuda, Naugaon and other coastal blocks. The untimely rains also caused extensive damage to standing paddy, maize, vegetable, black gram, horse gram, groundnut and other crops in different areas of Jagatsinghpur district.
The farmers are struggling to save their crops. Instead of visiting the affected areas and addressing the woes of farmers, the Agriculture Minister is giving insensitive statements, the agitators alleged.Criticising Rout for his comments, local BJP leader Gatikrushna Satpathy said the minister’s statements have further harassed the farmers. Earlier, State BJP leaders had demanded ouster of Rout from his post after the Minister said the family of Brunda Sahu, the farmer who burnt his crop and committed suicide in Bargarh district after pest attack, would not get any Government assistance.