Patnaik pitches for hike in paddy MSP, opposes DBT for pensions

He said that it's important to mitigate the sufferings of farmers, incentivise paddy cultivation in the state

Raising the concerns of over a million paddy farmers in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday made a strong plea to the Union government to raise the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.

Since paddy remains the dominant crop of Odisha, Patnaik said, the MSP needs to be hiked to Rs 2,500 per quintal as against the revised price of Rs 1,470 per quintal announced in 2016. This, he stated, is important to mitigate the sufferings of farmers, incentivise paddy cultivation in the state and for empowering farmers financially.

Speaking at the 11th meeting of the Inter-State Council meeting in New Delhi, he voiced his concerns on Polavaram irrigation project being given the tag of a national project by the despite opposition by the state government.

Referring to the project, he said: "This is a clear case of conflict of interest and against the principles of fair play. The council should take note of such critical issues having inter-state ramifications and evolve an institutional mechanism to settle such disputes in a time bound and effective manner.’’

Opposing discontinuance of central support for key schemes, he said: "This is severely impacting the most vulnerable population and the backward regions of Odisha" and urged upon the Prime Minister to restore central assistance for these programmes. Odisha also continues to suffer from historical neglect in both road and rail communication; he rued underscoring the need for Railways to expedite implementation of long pending projects.

On clean environment cess levied on coal by the Union government, Patnaik opined 60 per cent of the proceeds need to be shared with the host states.

The chief minister expressed his reservations at the introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for disbursal of pensions. He highlighted that Odisha has 4.4 million pensioners with many residing in the remotest parts of the state and the state’s pension distribution system entailing a fixed day approach for disbursal at the gram panchayat headquarters has been appreciated widely as one of the finest disbursal systems in the country.