Farmers Movement Archive

‘Crude price drop gains not being shared’

JAIPUR: Governor Kalraj Mishra on Wednesday said the Centre was not sharing with people or the state governments the benefits of the drastic fall in international crude prices while raising additional cess which was not shared with the states. This practice by the Centre is depriving the states with its genuine shares, said the governor during his customary address ahead of the state’s Budget session. During his speech marked by the disruption by CPM MLA Balwan Poonia, Mishra highlighted the state government’s work on Covid management, relief measures, police reforms, women’s safety and industrial development, among others. He also mentioned about three agriculture bills passed by the assembly to protect the interest of farmers. But the bills passed in a special session in November to counter the contentious central agriculture laws, have not been cleared by the governor yet. Mishra said due to the state government’s policy of registering all FIRs, every complaint is being filed in the state and investigation units for crime against women have been set up in every district. Highlighting the Congress government’s achievements, the governor said that farm-loan waiver, Indira Rasoi scheme, one-stop shop for industry, social welfare schemes, women empowerment and water conservation schemes have helped people immensely. He said the development of basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, roads, education and medicine and expansion of schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Mahatma Gandhi Rajasthan Health Insurance have given new hope to the public during the pandemic. Elaborating on Rajasthan’s Covid-19 management, he said the state’s capacity has increased to 70,000 RT-PCR tests per day while arrangement of 140 dedicated Covid hospitals and health centres, over 43,000 isolation beds, 1,899 ventilators, 3,170 ICU beds were made. The governor said the free medicine scheme has proved to be extremely useful in handling the pandemic. Under the scheme, 713 different types of medicines were being made available free of cost. A new tourism policy, m-sand policy, recruitment of youths in the last two years were among other points which the governor spoke about.

The Times of India

2021-02-11

Jaipur