Rotting food grains: BJP urges farmers to unite

New Delhi, Sep 18: Seeking to pressurise the central government further on the issue of rotting food grains, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, Sep 18 urged the farmers to unite and corner the Congress-led UPA.

The saffron party held a dharna in the national capital demanding better storage facilities, and minimum support price for farmers' produce.

Speaking to the famers who gathered at the dharna, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh said, "There is an urgent need for directives to Food Corporation of India for compulsory laboratory testing of all food grains lying in its godowns. The government has to upgrade its storage facilities and improve technology required for this purpose."

"I want to ask agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who has to take a decision regarding food security? State governments can take a call but the responsibility is on the Centre as procurement is in their hands," he added.

Asserting that the issue of fixing Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for farmers' produce is also the Centre's responsibility, the former BJP president said, "It cannot escape from its responsibility. By saying that agriculture is a state subject, it is playing a cruel joke on farmers."

This move by the BJP comes days after a delegation from the main opposition party approached the National Human Rights Commission and handed over two dozen sample of rotten food grain collected from various FCI godowns.

OneIndia News