Samajwadi Party demands compensation for rain-hit farmers in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, Jan 3: Odisha unit of Samajwadi Party on Saturday demanded that the state government announce compensation for the farmers who lost their paddy crop and vegetables due to unseasonal rains for the past three days.

"Farmers have lost their crops in the districts of Ganjam, Naygarh, Khurda, Puri, Cuttack, Jagtsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balsore, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar," Samajwadi Party state president Rabi Behera said in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Behera said the rice millers could take advantage of the situation and farmers would face difficulty as the authorities may estimate the weather beaten crops as of low FAQ (fair average quality).

In the process, the farmers will be denied minimum support price, he said. Similarly, vegetables have also been damaged and 'unscrupulous' traders and vendors would hike the price of vegetable in the market, he said adding potato, groundnut, mung and black mung crops are also destroyed.

Seeking early assessment of the crop loss due to unseasonal rains that lashed different parts of the state for last three days, the SP leader demanded easy availability of interest free loans to the affected farmers.

PTI