Cong stages demonstration

Congress activists and leaders staged a demonstration near the state assembly here today accusing the BJD government in Odisha of neglecting the farmers who were forced to resort to distress sale of paddy.
Led by Pradesh Congress Committee President Prasad Harichandan, the demonstrators said the distressed farmers from different parts of the state were now getting united and organised to fight the anti-peasant policy of the government.
Senior leaders including former PCC Presidents Niranjan Patnaik and Jayadev Jena, former union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, MLAs Taraprasad Bahinipati and Chiranjeeb Biswal and former MP Pradeep Majhi joined the rally.
Majhi and some others were taken into preventive custody for sometime when they tried to break the police cordon and barricade, police said.

A large number of farmers, mostly from undivided Koraput district, also demonstrated on Mahatma Gandhi road near the assembly with paddy stacked up highlighting their plight caused by irregular paddy procurement.
Prasad Harichandan said the condition of farmers in Odisha was pathetic as they were unable to sell their paddy despite harvesting a bumper crop.

He said farmers are now getting united and organised against the anti farmer policies of the BJD government. While many farmers have come from undivided Koraput district as a beginning, more such demonstrations would follow, he said.
With government agencies not procuring paddy from mandis, farmers are forced to resort to distress sell, Harichandan said adding the farmers were being exploited by the unscrupulous middlemen.

Majhi blamed the state government for the plight of farmers and said despite harvesting a bumper crop, farmers of Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri and Rayagada districts are unable to sell their produce.