Bhubaneswar: Launching a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the contentious issue of paddy procurement, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday accused the saffron party of trying to politicise the matter and deliberately telling lies to divert public attention.
In a presser here, BJD spokesperson, Shreemayee Mishra, and the party’s women wing president, Snehangini Churia hit out at the Centre for refusing to buy paddy from state farmers.
Speaking to the media persons, Mishra said,” It is the primary duty of Central government to procure paddy from the states but the BJP government is constantly lying to the people regarding the paddy procurement amount.”
“Paddy procurement in the state in 2020-21 was to the tune of 77.33 lakh metric tonnes amounting to Rs 14,446 crore. The Government of India has provided Rs 3,824 crore for food subsidy during the current Kharif season and the Food Corporation of India has received Rs 2,935 crore. Excluding the state’s subsidy of Rs 1,117 crore, Rs 6,570 crore is outstanding on non-performing bank loans. We urge the central government to immediately pay Rs 6,570 crore in arrears on food subsidies,” claimed Mishra
“The first issue is that the state government has to get money from the central government for food subsidies, but the BJP government has not yet provided it. The central government needs to lift the remaining 20 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from Odisha. However, it has lifted only 1.3 million metric tonnes of rice, while another 0.7 million metric tonnes of paddy is still lying dormant,” asserted Chhuria.
“Every single grain of paddy that farmers want to sell will be procured by the government at the minimum support price. The Odisha government has requested the central government to extend the Kharif paddy harvest period from June 30, 2021, to September 30, 2021, for various reasons. Unfortunately, the BJP-led central government extended the deadline to one month, or until July 31, 2021. The paddy procurement this time has been more than last year and the BJD government asssures that every single bag of paddy of genuine farmers will be procured,” Chhuria said.
