Odisha House panel on paddy MSP to seek fresh date with PM

Bhubaneswar: The House Committee of Odisha Assembly on Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Paddy which met here today decided to again seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to present its memorandum for hiking MSP of paddy.

“The committee in its meeting today decided to again seek an appointment with the Prime Minister to meet him and present our memorandum,” informed Leader of the Opposition in the Odisha Assembly, Narasingha Mishra speaking to reporters after the meeting.

“It was decided to again write to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It was also decided to ask the Resident Commissioner as to whom he had met and deliberated with while seeking appointment earlier. The Commissioner should inform us about that,” said BJP Legislative Party leader K V Singhdeo.

The State Assembly had witnessed uproarious scenes on last Friday over the demand for hike in paddy MSP.

It may be mentioned here that the State Assembly had on March 25 last unanimously adopted a resolution recommending the state government to demand Centre for increasing MSP of paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal.

The House Committee had earlier sought appointments with the Prime Minister on two occasions after the adoption of the unanimous resolution by the Assembly but the PMO had failed to oblige and even had not responded to the letters.

It may be recalled here that the Central government on June 20 announced Rs 1,550 per quintal as the MSP of paddy for 2017-18 by hiking it by a meagre Rs 80. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had described the announcement as ‘totally disappointing’.