Odisha: Congress to set up task force to reach out to farmers, listen to their woes

Bhubaneswar, Mar 11 (PTI) The opposition Congress in Odisha on Tuesday announced that it would form a task force that would visit every block of the state to assess the ground situation of the farm sector and listen to the problems faced by farmers.

Addressing a meeting of the Kisan Congress, the party's state president Bhakta Charan Das alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre and the state were meting out "step-motherly treatment" to the farmers and neglecting them.

"A task force will be formed soon and it will visit every block of the state to study the ground situation of farmers," he said.

The Kisan Congress will be strengthened at the grassroots level so that it can raise farmers' issues more effectively, he added.

Pradesh Kisan Congress president Amiya Kumar Patnaik said Odisha is an agricultural state, and more than 65 per cent of the people are directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture.

"Due to the misrule of the last BJD government in the state and the BJP government at the Center, more than 10,000 farmers have died by suicide in the state in the last 25 years because of crop losses and the subsequent debt burden on them," he alleged.

Patnaik urged the state government to waive off farm loans, provide free electricity for agricultural areas, set up cold storage in every block, hike agricultural input subsidy, and give a monthly assistance of Rs 3,000 to farmers. PTI BBM BBM SOM