Intensifying its protest against the Centre over alleged non-lifting of parboiled rice from Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) organised mass agitation and protest outside the office of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
The party said the State produces 95 per cent parboiled rice and the Centre is supposed to procure the rice through the FCI. However, the Centre has showed step-motherly attitude towards the State and arbitrarily stopped procuring the surplus parboiled rice.
Alleging that the Centre is not lifting 22 lakh MT surplus parboiled rice from Odisha, the conch party questioned why the BJP MPs from the State are not raising the issue. It demanded the Centre to lift the surplus parboiled rice at the earliest.
Several farmers extended support to the BJD and also joined the protest.
Reacting to the allegations, the BJP accused the BJD of enacting drama over the parboiled and raw rice to hush up the alleged mismanagement in the paddy procurement prevailed in mandis across the State.
“The drama over the parboiled and raw rice is going on for the past three years. The Centre has clearly stated that it will lift all the rice, then why the State government is creating confusion over parboiled and raw rice. It is the lookout of the mill owners,” BJP leader Surath Biswal said.
“Consumption of raw rice is more across the country in comparison to parboiled rice. MoU has been signed between State, Centre and FCI to procure the rice as per requirement. Then why the State is spreading lies,” he questioned.
The drama is enacted just to avoid the wrath of people over mandi mismanagement and hush up the matter, Biswal concluded.
It may be recalled that BJD MPs Prasanna Acharya, Amar Patnaik, Sasmit Patra and Prashanta Nanda recently raked up the issue of alleged non-lifting of parboiled rice during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha and demanded the Centre to lift surplus parboiled rice from Odisha.