Farmers Movement Archive

BJP fulfilling Charan Singh’s dream for farmers, says Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: Invoking former Prime Minister and farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh on his 119th birth anniversary, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday asserted that the BJP government at the Centre and the state were “fulfilling his dreams by taking all possible steps for the welfare of farmers”. He pointed out how the Ramala sugar mill in Baghpat district, which happened to be the ‘karmbhoomi’ of Charan Singh, was revived by his government after a gap of 30 years. Speaking at an event to felicitate farmers and agricultural scientists on the occasion of ‘Kisan Samman Diwas’, Yogi said the steps taken by the Centre for the welfare of farmers since 2014 have been unprecedented and commendable. “Before 2014 (when Congress-led UPA was in power), farmers were forced to commit suicide. So was the case with UP before 2017,” he said, drawing a contrast with the BJP government which, he said, took various policy decisions to ‘increase farmers income’. He also highlighted PM Kisan Samman Nidhi as a ‘major initiative’ in the interest of farmers. Yogi’s insistence marked BJP’s renewed attempt to reach out to the farming community which has been staging a raging protest against the three farm laws that were later annulled by the Centre. The CM’s statement was also a message to farmers in west UP region which was affected by the farmer stir even as the opposition ranks, especially the SP and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), harped on the issue to take on BJP in the run up to the polls. Yogi said that even though the announcement of providing minimum support price (MSP) to farmers was made in 1966 but its actual implementation was done under the Narendra Modi government which ensured an MSP at the rate of 1.5 times the cost of cultivation. Training guns at the previous state governments in UP, Yogi said the farmers were either forced to quit farming or got weighed down with massive debt due to ‘irrational and unscientific’ agricultural policies. He recalled how after coming to power in 2017, his government came up with a Rs 36,000 crore loan waiver scheme for the benefit of 86 lakh farmers. “Several irrigation schemes which have been pending for years are now getting completed and an additional 22 lakh hectares of land is now being irrigated,” he said. Yogi also put the previous state governments in the dock over the ‘absence of a procurement policy’ and allowing middlemen in the sale and purchase of food grain. He pointed out that the total paddy and wheat procurement had increased in the state.

The Times of India

2021-12-24

Lucknow