BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Assembly on Saturday witnessed noisy scenes over the issue of neglect of farmers by the state government with Opposition BJP members staging a dharna in the well of the House.The BJP members staged dharna in protest when Forest and Environment Minister Pradip Amat replied to an adjournment motion on farmers’ issue on behalf of Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. The BJP members raised objection to the absence of departmental minister, who is busy campaigning in Padampur bypoll, when the House is in session.
Earlier, raising the issue during the zero hour, leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingha Mishra targeted both the Centre and the state government for neglecting farmers in the state. Referring to Friday’s disruption of the Assembly by BJP and BJD members over farmers’ issue, Mishra said a separate law should be brought in the House if all the political parties want welfare of the farmers of the state.
The CLP leader also demanded that the state government should raise minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal basing on the unanimous resolution passed in the Assembly if the Centre did not agree to it.
Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress also targeted the state government over the issue and alleged that bonus on paddy has not been paid even though it was announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Besides, input subsidy has been announced for affected farmers without declaration of drought by the state government, he added.
However, replying to the discussion, the minister dismissed the allegations brought by the Congress members and asserted that the state government has always acted for the welfare of the farmers. Several schemes have been announced for the welfare of the farmers, he added.