The politics over paddy procurement in Odisha intensified on Thursday with opposition BJP organising a protest of thousands of farmers in the state’s western town of Sambalpur accusing the Biju Janata Dal government of doing a shoddy job of paddy procurement.
At the congregation of farmers, BJP leaders alleged that despite the Odisha government’s claim of record procurement in the current kharif marketing season thousands of farmers have not been able to sell their paddy to the government.
Addressing the farmers, Bijaypal Singh Tomar, Rajya Sabha MP and in-charge of Odisha BJP, alleged that farmers in western Odisha as well as other districts are facing a lot of problems during the paddy procurement and many are being forced to sell their paddy below the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹1,868.
“The Narendra Modi govt raised the MSP of paddy to ₹1,868 per quintal, yet several farmers are not able to get the MSP,” he alleged.
Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari, alleged that the state government has no reply to farmers’ grievances over lapse of advance tokens issued to them. “Though the government claims that this year they have procured 22 per cent more paddy than last year’s, the reality is totally opposite. Farmers are being forced to sell their paddy much below the minimum support price fixed by the Centre at ₹1,868 per quintal. Food supplies minister Ranendra Pratap Swain had promised that criminal cases will be filed if paddy is procured below the MSP at any place. However, no such action has been taken anywhere so far,” alleged Pujari.
He further said the procurement ceiling of 19 quintal for irrigated lands and 13 quintal for non-irrigated lands was completely unjustified and has resulted in hundreds of quintals of paddy lying unsold.
Farmers led by state BJP president Samir Mohanty and leader of opposition Pradipta Naik also scuffled with police when they tried to gherao the revenue divisional commissioner office in Sambalpur. They have been arrested
The ruling BJD rubbished the BJP’s allegations. BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said that the Odisha government has already procured 23 per cent of more paddy as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
“At a time when the procurement is more than last year, claims of lacuna in the procurement process are totally wrong and based on fake evidence. Instead of gheraoing the RDC’s office claiming that farmers are facing problems, the BJP should first address the country-wide protest over the farm laws,” said Deb, referring to procurement of 36 lakh tonne of paddy during the current kharif marketing season.
Farmer leaders in western Odisha, said the state government’s claim of record procurement was misleading. “This year the harvest was good due to adequate rain. However, the government did not revise its ceiling of paddy procurement of 19 quintals for every acre of irrigated land and 13 quintals for every acre of non-irrigated land. As a result thousands of farmers were left with unsold paddy which they had to sell at half the price of MSP fixed by the government. The government should have re-oriented its policy looking at the record harvest,” said Ashok Pradhan, farmer leader of western Odisha.
Pradhan alleged that apart from the losses suffered by the farmers due to distress sale, foregoing 4-6 kg of paddy for every quintal during procurement was hurting the farmers.
Meanwhile, Odisha’s food supplies and consumer welfare minister Ranendra Pratap Swain in a letter to Union consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister Piyush Goel claimed that that the Centre is yet to give ₹6,039 crore towards pending subsidy claims for paddy procurement. Swain in his letter said the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation which procures paddy, has so far borrowed a staggering sum of ₹15,000 crore to run the programme due to non-release of subsidy by the Department of Food and Public Distribution. “As all resources including the sanctioned limit of bank finances have been exhausted by OSCSC, the pending subsidy may be released urgently as further paddy procurement from farmers will be severely affected,” he wrote.
Swain also took exception to the Food Corporation of India’s missive to Odisha government for limiting the delivery of surplus parboiled rice of Odisha to the extent of 50% of the last year delivery and not to accept any surplus in the form of parboiled rice during the Rabi season of the current Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.
“Odisha is primarily a parboiled rice consuming state which is consumed in 24 out of 30 districts. As most of the rice mills in the state are parboiled mill, asking the state to deliver surplus rice in the form of raw rice in Rabi and to limit procurement of parboiled rice in the Kharif to the extent of 50% of last year FCI delivery will have far-reaching adverse consequences for the state,” Swain said.
Political analysts said the fight between BJD and BJP over paddy procurement was essentially a tussle over retaining their political base in western Odisha. “As BJP has regained its bastion in western Odisha in 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, the BJD wants to dent BJP’s base in the region where allegation of distress sale of paddy is heard frequently. Such fights would become more intense before the panchayat polls next year,” said Maheswar Duriya, assistant professor of political science in Bhawanipatna college.
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