Bhubaneswar, Nov 26 (PTI) The Odisha Assembly for the second consecutive day on Saturday witnessed a ruckus with members of both treasury and opposition benches raising the issues related to farmers' distress to target each other.

The farmers' issues, including "mismanagement" in paddy procurement, "non-payment" of input subsidy, and "inadequate" minimum support price, were taken up for discussion on the notice of the Congress, but legislators of the principal opposition BJP did not participate in it, demanding that the government's response to queries should come from Agriculture Minister R P Swain.

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During the discussion, the state government's reply was given by Panchayati Raj Minister PK Amat. Swain was campaigning for BJD candidate for the December 5 bypoll to Padampur in Bargarh district.

Demanding a reply from the minister concerned, the BJP members trooped to the well of the House and sought a ruling from Speaker BK Arukh.

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Unable to get any response from the chair, they started demonstrating in the well of the House, while the discussion continued over the farmers' issues.

Congress member S S Saluja also raised objection to the Panchayati raj minister replying to the House, instead of the agriculture and cooperation minister.

"The state government has announced input subsidy for the drought-affected farmers in view of the Padmapur by-election. Why was the government so late to announce input subsidy? The farmers should get it by July 31," Saluja said.

The Congress members held both the state's BJD dispensation and the BJP-led central government responsible for the "plight of farmers in Odisha".

Saluja sought to know "why the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' scheme was named after the PM if the Centre is not responsible for the timely payment of crop insurance to farmers".

The Congress MLA alleged that there were "irregularities in mandis during the paddy procurement". While participating in the debate, treasury bench members - Bhupinder Singh and Rajkishore Das - criticised both the BJP and the Congress.

The state Panchayati Raj Minister, in his reply to the House, said the state government has implemented a token system to bring transparency in the paddy procurement and payments are being made online to farmers.

He also said input subsidy has been arranged based on collectors' reports.

However, Amat alleged that farmers are "not getting the crop insurance claim payments in time due to objections of the insurance companies".

He blamed the Centre for the delay in payment of crop insurance to farmers.

"Various departments of the state government have already written 14 to 15 times to the central government regarding crop insurance but no response was made,” he said. The BJP members staged a walkout as they were not satisfied with the government's reply.

“I am requesting the BJP members with folded hands to stage a protest in front of Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar who is scheduled to visit Odisha tomorrow and ensure that the Centre increases the MSP”.

Congress members also walked out after expressing displeasure over the state minister's reply.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)