Congress to oppose CMs visit to districts

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has decided to oppose the visits of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the districts, protesting failure of the State Government to provide seeds to the farmers. Alleging that the State Government’s announcement of a package for the affected farmers of last year’s untimely rains was only meant to hoodwink the people, OPCC kissan cell chairman Amiya Kumar Patnaik said that financial assistance was yet to be distributed fully. The Centre had provided ` 815.43 crore to the State Government in February, but not even 25 per cent of it has been distributed among the farmers, he said.  Patnaik alleged that the State Government had also failed to provide the required seeds to the farmers for the kharif. The Congress leader alleged that the direction of Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathi to the officials to provide seeds to the farmers in time does not seem to have been carried out.  The state government had set a target to provide 6.12 lakh quintal of certified paddy seeds to the farmers for cultivation of paddy on 43 lakh hectare land. The Centre had also provided ` 32 crore for this reason with a subsidy of ` 500 per quintal. But so far only three lakh quintal of paddy seeds have been supplied. Alleging that the Seeds Corporation does not have any stock now, Patnaik said that farmers were not getting seeds from block offices also. He said that the Seeds Corporation is importing 50,000 quintals of paddy seeds from two private companies in Andhra Pradesh without tender and permission from the Agriculture Department. Stating that this would not be able to cater to the needs of the farmers, Patnaik alleged that the government’s bid to compromise the interests of the farmers would not be tolerated. The visits of the Agriculture Minister will also be opposed, he said.