BJD Agitation in Bhubaneswar Against Reduced Paddy Procurement

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) staged a protest due to the reduction in Paddy procurement on Tuesday in Bhubaneswar.

The Center has announced a huge reduction of Rs. 20,000 Crores in Paddy procurement in the Union Budget this year.

Following the protest, in a press conference, BJD Senior Vice President and former Minister and Ex-MP Prasanna Acharya said that this huge slashing by Rs. 20,000 Crores will virtually ensure that the farmers are unable to even get their MSP and Paddy Procurement will drastically go down.

He added that this will severely affect the farmers of Odisha, especially from Western Odisha and deeply impact their livelihood. From 18 lakh metric tons (MT) of rice which used to be lifted from Odisha by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) annually, now for 2022-23 the Centre has reduced it by 80% to only 4 lakh MT.

In the end, he said, “We demand that every single surplus food grain must be lifted from Odisha through Paddy Procurement by the Centre in the interests of farmers of mainly Western Odisha and the farmers of Odisha must not be deprived of their MSP at any cost by Centre.”