Congress MLAs create ruckus in Odisha Assembly over paddy procurement
Bhubaneswar, Nov 29 (ANI)
The Odisha Assembly on Thursday witnessed an uproar with opposition Congress members storming into the well demanding a special discussion on the plight of farmers, forcing frequent adjournments.
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh of the Congress raised the issue of farmers as soon as the House assembled for the day.
"We demand cancellation of the question hour and hold a discussion on the plight of the farmers'," Singh said.
"Since, all the farmers are on the road, their paddy is on the road, markets have not been opened. Normally the markets are supposed to be opened from October, today is November 29 and in all the districts as promised by the government in the last monsoon session and also in the budget session, this government has not been able to start market anywhere. So, farmers are crying on the road," he said.
"There is nobody for them. This time the crop condition is very good and the procurement that has been decided by government is one-third of the procurement of paddy in the districts. What about the two-third rest paddy, where they will sell it?," he asked.
Singh said that though the paddy crop is good this year but the procurement decided by the government is just one-third.
Singh further alleged that the state ruling government has also failed to provide insurance money to the farmers as promised in the previous assembly session.
"We have also demanded for bonus to the farmers and the insurance money that has not been given to the farmers is only because of the failure of the government. Mandatory provision is there that atleast four-crop cutting should be there in each village council. The government has failed to have four-crop cutting in each village council for which why the farmers will be deprived for getting insurance. So, before bringing the supplementary budget, we wanted that let there be a provision, money should be paid by the state government because they are at fault," said Singh.
Opposition members, however, insisted acceptance of their notice and demanded a debate cancelling question hour.