Naveen Patnaik Picture: Ashwinee Pati
The day Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan, the state’s largest peasants’ body, gave the call for a 12-hour Odisha bandh on Thursday demanding right price for agriculture produce, pension and prestige for farmers, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath lashed out at his Odisha counterpart for deliberately not implementing the PM-KISAN Yojana.
While the BJP, Congress and Maoists have extended support to the bandh, the state government has urged the organisers to withdraw their strike call in the interest of six lakh students who are gearing up for the annual matriculation examination to be held from February 22.
In a press release, the state government said: “If the Sangathan still persists with their planned bandh programme, the state government will be compelled to take all necessary measures to ensure smooth conduct of the examination..”
However, the farmers’ body convenor Akshya Kumar said: “We will not succumb to the pressure tactics of the government and will go ahead with our strike tomorrow (Thursday).”
Kumar said: “When everyone is getting pension, why deprive the farmers? The state needs just Rs 21,600 crore to give pension to 36 lakh farmers per annum.” Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said: “We have introduced the KALIA scheme for farmers. When talks are on, the call for an Odisha bandh is unfortunate.”
While farmers are up in arms, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik hit back at Adityanath for accusing him of deliberately not implementing the central scheme for peasants.
Reiterating his demand, Naveen asked the Centre to include landless farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate from Gorakhpur in UP on Sunday.
Adityanath, who was on a tour to the state, said on Wednesday: “Odisha is knowingly not giving the beneficiary list. They have the fear that if they send the list, money will come to the poor and to farmers. Naveen Patnaik government will no more be able to fool the farmers. If they have the concern for the poor, they would have implemented the Aysuhman Bharat scheme.”
