Farmers clash with police, block NH-53 over deadlock at paddy mandis in Odisha’s Bargarh

Tense scenes unfolded in the Gudbhaga locality of Bargarh district on Tuesday as farmers and police came face-to-face on NH-53. Hundreds of farmers staged a protest by spreading and drying paddy right on the national highway, alleging that the mandi’s non-functioning had pushed them to the brink.

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Irate farmers blocked the NH in Gudbhaga, triggering a massive traffic jam on both sides of the road. The blockade followed the collapse of talks with the administration. Confrontation intensified as police attempted to clear the route while farmers refused to call off their agitation.

Senior officials, including Bargarh Sub-Collector Prasanna Kumar Pande and the local SDPO, reached the spot and tried to pacify the protesters. A large number of vehicles remained stranded for hours due to the stalemate.

Farmers have been protesting for more than two hours. The agitation was underway till the time when this report was filed. Vehicles have lined up to five to seven kilometres on both the Bargarh side and Sambalpur side of the road.

“This impasse has been continuing at the paddy mandis for the last five to six days after the procurement facilities opened on November 28. We have not been given tokens, and our produce is still lying in the open. We are not sure as to when procurement will begin,” some agitating farmers expressed.

“The lifting process is very slow this time. Almost 40 per cent of the paddy is usually procured by this time every year. However, due to different problems in procurement, the process has slowed down. Tokens were used to reach us at a time in previous years. But this year, tokens are being sent to us in phases,” Bargarh Sub-Collector said to OTV.

Reported By: Dharmadatta Padhi