Bhubaneswar, June 28: The Odisha BJP today accused both the central and state governments of ignoring farmers’ interests.

“The Centre has revised the minimum support price of paddy from Rs 1,250 per quintal to Rs 1,310, while the cost of production comes to around Rs 1,400 per quintal,” said BJP Odisha president K.V. Singh Deo.

“The revised rate is meagre, taking into account the fact that the rate of inflation comes to around 10 per cent and the Centre has revised DA for its employees twice this year,” he said, and demanded that the minimum support price be revised to Rs 2,100 per quintal.

Taking a dig at the Naveen Patnaik government, Singh Deo said: “While the state government is distributing umbrellas and mobile sets to farmers, it’s not giving bonus to them over and above the minimum support price of paddy like other neighbouring states.”

“Perhaps the state government is getting kickbacks from the umbrella and mobile set manufacturers,” he remarked.

Alleging that both the Centre and the Odisha governments were adopting an “anti-farmer policy”, the BJP state chief said farmers were forced to commit suicide due to the government apathy towards them. “Farmers are forced to repay the loan while they are not getting remunerative price for their produce and are affected by frequent natural disasters,” he said.

BJP general secretary Manmohan Samal alleged that the farmers were forced to sell paddy at throwaway prices as the government had stopped its procurement. Samal, former food supplies minister, alleged that Odisha had failed to create adequate storage space for food grains.