Several senior Congress leaders of the state on Friday demanded that the government ensure payment of minimum support price to maize farmers. The Congress leaders, in a joint statement, alleged that there was now sheer disappointment among farmers in the state who have been forced to make distress sale of maize. Farmers in Nabarangpur district, in the absence of government mandis, were forced to sale their maize to private businessmen of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 900 to Rs 1000 per quintal. The government on the other has fixed minimum a support price of Rs 1,425 per quintal this year,