Bhubaneswar: The opposition has hit out at the government over the dismal condition of farmers in Odisha, with farmers in several districts facing non-payment for their produce, pending insurance claims, and lack of compensation for damage caused by wild animal attacks.
Bhakta Charan Das, President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, has urged the government to immediately address the farmers’ issues and provide them their rightful dues.
For the past four months, 344 farmers from Raigarh block in Nabarangpur district have been awaiting a payment of approximately Rs 4.5 crore for selling 15,000 quintals of paddy from the last Kharif season. These farmers have protested on the Bhubaneswar-Nabarangpur highway for four days to highlight their grievances, but they continue to be deprived of their dues.
Similarly, over one lakh farmers in Ganjam district are awaiting crop insurance compensation despite having paid their premiums. The situation is even more dire in Angul and Deogarh districts, where more than 80 percent of crops have been destroyed due to elephant attacks, creating a terrible crisis for the farmers. Despite these continuous attacks, no concrete action has been taken by the government to provide relief to the farmers.
Today, Shri Das held discussions with prominent farmer leaders from Nabarangpur, Ganjam, Angul, and Jajpur regions. Following the discussions, he urged the government to immediately release the Rs 4.5 crore due to the farmers of Raigarh block, provide appropriate insurance assistance and agricultural input assistance to the farmers whose crops were damaged in Ganjam district. Shri Das also appealed to the media to highlight the immediate need for assistance to farmers whose crops were damaged by elephant violence in Angul and Deogarh districts.
During the press conference, PCC Kisan Congress President Amiya Kumar Patnaik and farmer representatives from the four districts strongly criticized the BJP government’s “farmer-killing policies.” They emphasized that if the farmers are not compensated immediately, the farmers’ agitation against the government will be intensified.