Potato keeps House on boil

BHUBANESWAR: The humble tuber united both treasury and opposition members in the assembly on Monday. They created an impasse over distress sale of potato. An all-party meeting convened by speaker Niranjan Pujari ended inconclusive. Agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy and cooperation minister Damodar rout passed the buck on each other for the farmers' plight.
Raising the issue during zero hour, Athagarh MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain (BJD) said the state government's failure to ensure potato sale has resulted in their rotting.Smelling a conspiracy, Swain sought a statement from the government. Claiming that though potato was being sold at Rs 3 to Rs 4 a kg against the minimum support price of Rs 6, Swain said though the government had fixed a procurement target of 29,000 metric tonne (MT) for this year, it had lifted only 2,000 MT. Leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra described the situation as 'very serious' and sought a ruling from the speaker before allowing further business in the House. "The government must find a solution. The ministers must reply," he said.
As Congress members raised anti-government slogans and tried to climb onto the speaker's podium, Pujari adjourned the House twice, first from 12.15pm to 12.50pm and then from 12.50pm to 3pm.
A meeting chaired by the speaker and attended by agriculture minister, cooperation minister, parliamentary affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma, Leader of opposition and BJP legislature party leader Basanta Panda could not arrive at a solution. The ministers would meet again on Tuesday.
Outside the assembly, the agriculture minister said he had done his duty to maximize tuber production. "Ensuring its sale was not my job. The cooperation department should ensure procurement by agencies like Markfed and Nafed," Maharathy said.
Agriculture minister said, "Did the agriculture minister inform me to create marketing arrangement for the extra production?"
The leader of opposition said the ministers' response to the situation show lack of coordination among various government departments. "If the government does not come out with a strategy by Tuesday morning to lift all the potato, we will step up protest," Narasingha said.