Cuttack: Thousands of farmers from across the district under the banner of Navnirman Krishak Sangathan (NKS) gathered before the collector's office here and staged a demonstration on Wednesday.
NKS, a farmers' association, has been staging several protests in the state for nearly eight years demanding minimum support price of paddy and pension for state farmers.
Donning NKS head bands and caps, the agitators, including women, took out a rally from near the Sai Temple at Khannagar and marched nearly 5km all the way to the collector's office, hitting the traffic on the ring road along Kathajod river and all connecting roads for several hours.
The agitators submitted a memorandum to the state government through the district administration. "I received their memorandum and assured them that I will communicate to the government," Cuttack collector Sushant Mohapatra told The Telegraph.
"Their main demands are pension for farmers and minimum support price of paddy," Mohapatra said.
NKS coordinator Akshay Kumar told The Telegraph minimum support price of paddy and pension for farmers were the fundamental rights of the farmers' community.
"We want the state government to announce a budgetary allocation of Rs 21,600 crore for a monthly pension Rs 5,000 for the past 20 years. We also demand Rs 5,000 for one quintal of paddy as minimum support price," Kumar said.
The state has more than 36 lakh farmers.
The protestors said that the state government should meet their demands by October 28 or else they would launch a massive agitation in Bhubaneswar. "If the government fails to meet our demands then farmers from all nook and corners of the state will start walking to the state capital for an indefinite agitation on November 5," Kumar said.
The NKS co-ordinator criticised the state government for fixing the minimum support price of paddy at Rs 2930 a quintal.
A farmer from Narsinghpur, who did not wish to be named, said the state government had been apathetic to the problems of farmers. "The government is ready to spend a lot on industries and various schemes but not on our welfare," he said.
