Due to changed schedule of paddy procurement date
Raipur, November 03, 2011
The Pradesh Kisan Congress (PKC) on Thursday said that the farmers would have to incur over Rs 45 crore loss due to change in the scheduled date of commencement of paddy procurement in the state. “The government was supposed to begin procurement from November 1 but to benefit the middlemen, it decided for delayed start by fixing 15th as scheduled date. However, when Congress mounted pressure on it, November 5 was announced as rescheduled date. Now, the five-day late procurement will cause more than Rs 45 crore loss to the farmers,” said PKC convenor Digvijay Singh Kridutt.
“The government had earlier targeted to procure 50 lakh MT paddy in three months, i.e. about 55000 MT per day considering November 1 as commencement date. So, the government would not purchase 280000 MT paddy from the farmers at minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1080 per quintal from November 1-5. The farmers are obviously compelled to sell the paddy to the middlemen at the cost of Rs 920 per quintal and incur loss of Rs 160 per quintal,” Kridutt elaborated.
“Still, the BJP claims that the October 31 dharna of Congress was a failure. This is an apparent indicative of BJP’s frustration on massive support received by the opposition from public, especially farmers,” he said.
“The BJP government is anti-farmer and therefore it has not yet fulfilled its promise under its election manifesto during 2008 Assembly polls to distribute Rs 270 paddy bonus and free electricity to operate five horsepower pumps for irrigation. The farmers have distanced off themselves from the BJPians after realising that the party had always been indifferent towards their problems,” said Kridutt.
No comments:
Post a Comment