Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution that a House committee will meet the President to take up the issue of hike in the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy as the Prime Minister did not give it an appointment.
However, the BJP did not support the resolution.
BJD chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy moved the resolution, saying that despite several requests from the Assembly, the Prime Minister did not give appointment.
The BJD and Congress MLAs came down heavily on the Prime Minister for not giving an appointment to the House committee of the Odisha Assembly.
Agriculture minister Damodar Rout said: "The Prime Minister is behaving like the leader of a party rather than the head of a federal country." Terming as unfortunate the refusal of the Prime Minister's Office to give the House committee an appointment, Rout said: "The country has 30 states. It is the Prime Minister's responsibility to ensure that all the 30 states develop. But, he has failed to do this. The Prime Minister has enough time to deliver speeches but can't spare even 15 minutes to meet a constitutional body."
He recalled how prime ministers in the past, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had behaved like the leader of the country and not just a party.
Rout said: "The Prime Minister had announced to enhance the MSP by one-anda-half times the existing rate. But, the Centre enhanced it by only Rs 80 raising it from Rs 1,470 to Rs 1,550. But, our demand is Rs 2,930."
He said: "We want to convince him about the need to hike the MSP of paddy and the problems being faced by the farmers."
The minister, however, denied allegations of farmers committing suicide.
However, the BJP said it would not support the resolution.
"It will not serve the purpose of meeting the President. The BJD is doing politics on the issue. The Prime Minister's Office had advised the House committee to meet the Union agriculture minister. Why is the committee not meeting him? The President will also tell it the same thing. This is the procedure," said BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singh Deo.
