The war of words between the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the BJP over the contentious issue of paddy procurement intensified on Friday with both sides accusing each other of neglecting the interest of farmers.

The state BJP, which organised a farmers’ convention at Sambalpur on Thursday and gheraoed the office of Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) in the town followed by a nightlong dharna by its senior leaders at the town police station, has alleged massive irregularities in paddy procurement by the state government.

The party has accused the food supply department of failing to implement the token system for procurement properly and harassing the farmers by not lifting their paddy, which has been lying in the mandis.

On the other hand, the BJD had accused the BJP of trying to politicise the issue of procurement deliberately to divert public attention from the nationwide protest by farmers against the controversial farm laws of the NDA government. BJD spokesperson Srimayee Mishra also asserted that every single grain of paddy that farmers want to sell will be procured by the government at the minimum support price. She also claimed that paddy procurement this time has been more than last year.

The choice of Sambalpur for farmers’ rally and RDC office gherao by the BJP was obviously aimed at strengthening the party’s base in western Odisha which has been its stronghold.

But the protest outside the RDC office worked up political heat with the BJP workers and leaders engaging in a scuffle with the security men deployed at the office. State BJP president Samir Mohanty, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Pradipta Nayak, BJP MPs and some other leaders courted arrested. Later, the leaders staged a night-long “dharna” at the town police station demanding the acceptance of their demands.

Suresh Pujari, the party MP from the adjoining Bargarh constituency, told The Telegraph, “The Odisha government has failed to lift the paddy. Thousands of quintals of paddy are lying on roads near the market yards (mandis). If the state fails to lift it, it should hand over the procurement exercise to the Centre.” He also criticised state’s policy of limiting the paddy procurement to 19 quintals from one acre of irrigated land and 13 quintals from non-irrigated land.

“What will the farmer do with the surplus paddy?” asked Pujari.

However, the BJD hit back. “The BJP’s agitation is aimed at diverting the attention from the ongoing agitation of farmers against the controversial farm laws,” said BJD minister Samir Ranjan Dash.

He also hit out at the Centre for refusing to lift parboiled rice from state farmers. His comments came in the backdrop of state food supplies and consumer welfare minister, Ranendra Pratap Swain’s letter to Union consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister, Piyush Goyal asking him to direct the FCI to take steps to ensure smooth lifting of rice from the state.

“Odisha is primarily a parboiled rice consuming state. Raw rice is consumed only in six districts. Most of the rice mills in the state are parboiled mills. Therefore, asking the state to deliver surplus rice in the form of raw rice in Rabi and to limit procurement of parboiled rice in the Kharif to the extent of 50 per cent of last year FCI delivery will have far reaching adverse consequences for the state,” Swain said in his letter.

Addressing a press conference here BJD spokesperson Srimayee Mishra said that paddy procurement in the state in 2018-19 was to the tune of 65.5 lakh metric tonnes and Rs 11,400 crore of MSP was transferred to the farmers of the state that year. In 2019-20, the procurement rose to 70.56 lakh metric tonnes and MSP worth Rs 12,808 crore was credited in the accounts of farmers.

“The BJD government stands guarantee that every single bag of paddy of genuine farmers will be procured,” asserted Mishra alleging that the BJP was trying to protect the interest of middlemen (dalals) by resorting to agitation on the issue when the actual procurement of paddy in the state was so high.