The Odisha Assembly on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution seeking upward revision of the minimum support price of paddy from ₹1470 to ₹2930 per quintal.
After hours of debate, it was decided that a House committee would be constituted under the chairmanship of Speaker Niranjan Pujari in which all political parties would have representations.
House panel to meet PM
The House committee would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to submit its demand.
Earlier in the day, State Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy moved the resolution, stating that the State government had been repeatedly demanding a higher MSP for paddy from the central government to ensure adequate and fair returns for the farmer.
“The MSP fixed by the Union government is not commensurate with the rising costs of inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, manure, micro nutrient, irrigation charges and hiring charges of farm machineries being incurred by farmers in the State,” Mr. Maharathy said.
As per statistics of the State government, the cost of production of per quintal of paddy is ₹2,344.
The minister had proposed fixation of MSP at ₹2,500 per quintal in the resolution.
Congress demand
The opposition Congress, however, said the MSP at ₹2500 per quintal of paddy was too low considering that a farmer spends ₹2344 to produce a quintal of paddy.
The leader of the Opposition, Narasingha Mishra, had proposed the MSP at ₹3516, or 150% of the cost of production. However, the House resolved to demand MSP at ₹2930 per quintal paddy stating that it was an acceptable figure.
Farmers’ suicide
The State Assembly has been frequently disrupted over farmers’ suicide for several days. Opposition Congress and BJP members had been demanding constitution of a House committee which would probe the reason behind the suicides. The ruling BJD had rejected the demand.
