BJP farmers' wing submits memo to Prime Minister

Bhubaneswar: (Visakeo)-Bharatiya Janata Party Krushaka Morcha on Friday took to street against the wrong and anti-farmers policy being adapted by the Congress-led UPA Government at Centre. Meanwhile, the farmers' wing submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh through the Raj Bhawan here. The UPA Government has announced the minimum support price of some items including wheat and paddy for the 2007-08 Financial Year. The Price of wheat has been fixed at Rs 645 and Rs 675 per quintal with Rs 50 bonus. After the decision of the Centre, the difference between wheat and paddy now became Rs 275, which could affect the production of paddy, the farmers' wing State president Krushna Jagadev and BJP State secretary Pruithiraj Harichandan jointly said adding they also apprehended that the Food Security Mission would be badly affected to due to wrong policy introduced by the anti-farmers Government led by Manmohan Singh. Harichandan demanded that the Centre should reconsider the decision and the minimum support price of paddy should fixed at Rs 1,000 per quintal. The memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister Singh further argued, " This is necessary, as the price of resources being used for the agricultural sector has been hiked during the last several years". The memorandum pointed out that as the paddy is main crop of several States including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Karnatak, Kerala, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand, Bihar, Eastern UP and Tarai region of Uttarakhand, the Government should hike the MSP to Rs 1,000 per quintal