Leader of Opposition in Orissa Assembly Narasingh Mishra came down heavily upon both the Governments at the State and the Centre that, to him, are cheating the farmers.
The House was debating on the adjournment brought by his chief-whip on “apathy of the State and the Centre on the plight of farmers’.
BJD that rules the State had promised in its 2014 manifesto to provide irrigation to 10 lakh hectares in the current term. The promise is discernibly left in the lurch, he said. This tantamount to cheating the farmers with promises designed to bring in votes only. he asked the BJD government to show if a single medium or major irrigation project has been completed within its entire tenure of 18 years. Similarly in a diatribe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the distinguished debater denounced him for his blatant cheating to the farmers whom he had assured of revision of ‘Minimum Support Price’ to one-and-half-time the cost of production while seeking mandate in 2014. Modi even avoided the Assembly’s House Committee on the issue of MSP, he roared.
BJP members Basant Panda and Rabinarayan Das held the BJD government responsible for the plight of farmers as it neither is honoring the Centre’s guideline on pest control nor protecting their economy through bonus.
Taraprasad Bahinipati slammed the State Government over its blatant failure in agricultural front and felt, when the State is depending on import of vegetables and fruits and poultry and fishery product on Andhra Pradesh, basking under tags of Krushi Karman awards to this government should be viewed as awards to the unworthy.
Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy refused to agree with the allegation, asserting that the Govt. has been able to “double” farmers’ income within a decade.