The Naveen Patnaik Government is responsible for increasing farmers’ suicides in Odisha. The Government has completely failed to address the problems of farmers,” PCC president Prasad Harichandan said while attending the second phase of the Jan Jagaran Yatra on Friday in Sinapali block of Nuapada district.

The yatra started from the Ghuchaguda village at Sinapali and covered five villages on the way to reach the meeting venue. Opposition party leader Narasingha Mishra, in charge of Odisha BK Haraprashad, senior Congress leaders Bhakta Das, Jagannath Pattnaik, Sarat Pattnaik and Bijayalaxmi Sahu amomng others attended and addressed the meetings.

Harichandan said, “We have seen here in Nuapada how the crops have failed miserably due to draught, but the Government has not been sensitive towards this.”

 Farmers are migrating to Hyderabad and other cities under distress conditions. Assurance of 200 days of employment under MGNREGS has remained in paper. The situation of farmers is worst which is forcing them to commit suicide, said Harichandan, adding, “We demand compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre to farmers for crop loss and waiving of agriculture loan.

The PCC president alleged that the State lost crores of rupees due to delay in the implementation of the Food Security Act.

PCC general secretary Adhiraj Panigrahi took the lead in organising the programme in the district. More than 20,000 people attended the yatra, which covered a distance of 6 km.

Earlier in the day Harichandan, Hariprasad and party’s Odisha deputy in-charge Subhankar Sarkar visited the house of Bhubaneswar Behera, a farmer who committed suicide due to crop loss and met his family members and consoled them at Khariar.

The party would hold the Jan Jagaran Yatra at Narasinghguda in Nabarangpur district on Saturday.

The grand old party has decided to hold the yatra in 10-phases with an aim to reach out to people and understand their plights at the ground level. The yatra would end in March next.