NUAPADA: Vehicles were stranded for more than four hours on NH-353 on Thursday as district BJP staged a road blockade to protest delay in paddy procurement.
Party workers led by Kalahandi MP Basanta Kumar Panda gheraoed the office of the district Collector and staged a dharna. Later, a group of agitators blocked the highway at three points- near the Collector’s office, the road passing through Udyanbandh in Komna block and Tikhali dam chowk in Khariar.
After a few hours, a group of agitators held a meeting with Collector Madhusmita Sahu who after discussing the matter with higher officials over phone, assured that 28,712 quintal paddy will be procured against 675 tokens over the next one week.
The protest was called off after the Collector gave the agitators a written assurance in this regard.
The target set for kharif procurement this season was 13,52,000 quintal of which 12,20,000 quintal has been procured so far.
However, 57,455 bags of paddy (around 28,728 quintal) of 496 farmers are still lying unsold at 18 market yards across the district.