Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday lashed out at the Odisha government while accusing the ruling-BJD of being insensitive to the problems of farmers in regards to the paddy procurement in the State.
Addressing a presser, State BJP general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar said farmers are facing a lot of problems during the paddy procurement and even though they are staging protests across the State, Odisha government is silent and not worried about them.
She further said that the party workers and farmers from 35 Assembly seats and two Parliamentary constituencies of Boudh district will stage a protest and gherao the RDC office in Sambalpur tomorrow (January 21).
Around 40,000 BJP workers and farmers along with the State BJP chief Samir Mohanty and five BJP MPs from western Odisha will take part in the protest, said Samantsinghar.
Meanwhile, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said that the Odisha government has already procured 25 per cent of more paddy as compared to what it had procured last year by this time.
“At a time when the procurement is more as against last year, claims of lacuna in the procurement process is totally wrong and based on fake evidence. Instead of gheraoing the RDC office claiming that farmers are facing problems, the BJP should first address to the country-wide protest over the farm laws,” said Deb.
The BJP’s protest is politically motivated and an attempt to divert people’s attention from the real issues, he said, adding that the saffron party should first make Odisha farmers aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the new farm laws.