BJD to hold ‘Chasi Samavesh’ on Nov 19

Perturbed over the rising adverse marketing campaign towards the Odisha authorities over unabated instances of farmers” suicides, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday introduced it will maintain a “Chasi Samabesh’ (farmers’ conference) on November 19.

The rally would be held at Sohela in Bargarh district, Patro said, adding the opposition’s game plan over the drought situation would be exposed.

Expressing concern over the death of farmers in the State, which is faced with drought, senior BJD leader from Odisha’s western region Prasanna Acharya said the rally is aimed at boosting the self-confidence of farmers.

BJD spokesperson Sashibhusan Behera responded by saying the opposition should not play politics over farmers’ issues.

The State Government has announced a drought package of Rs 1000 crore for affected farmers.

He accused the state government of not having a clear policy to handle the situation and criticised the Naveen Patnaik dispensation for contradicting its own party MPs by denying the farmers’ suicides are nothing to do with agriculture. “The BJD is a party of farmers and the proposed convention aims to instill confidence in the peasant community”, said former minister and BJD vice-president Surya Narayan Patro, who is coordinating the programme. “They found that the farmers killed themselves for reasons other than crop loss and debt burden”, he said. Party insiders, however, claim that Bargarh got a thumbs-up as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had launched his padayatra there in September.

Pramila Mallick, the president of the women’s wing of Odisha’s ruling BJD, on Sunday created a row over farmer suicides when she asked the opposition to serve “amar laddoo” (immortality sweets) to people so that they would not die henceforth. “Farmers are committing suicide nearly on a daily basis”, Harichandan said.