Gorakhpur, 21 March (HS) : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that after seventy years of independence, such governments had come to the Center and the state which are committed to double the income of farmers and ensure their welfare.
Interacting with the farmers, he asked them to be wary of such vested and selfish elements who always misled the farmers and used them for their ulterior pecuniary interests. “The same people are behind the conspiracy to mislead the peasants, who while in power, did not do anything for the welfare of the farmers,” he pointed out adding that such elements used them to make their own fortune and allowed the farmers’ community to languish in penury and debt.
The Chief Minister was addressing a large farmers’ conference organised under the Mission Kisan Kalyan at the Government Agricultural School campus here on Sunday. CM Yogi apprised farmers of the work done by the Modi government of the Center and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state in the interest of farmers.
He said that those who misled the farmers had always been the habitual liars. “These people spread the lie that the farm land will be grabbed by contract farming, while PM Modi has already made it clear that contract farming is just another option, not an obligation and the farmers have all the freedom to sell their produce anywhere to earn more profit from the market, the CM fined asking “can anyone tell whether a farmer’s land was grabbed by contract farming ? In contract farming, no one can occupy the land of the farmer. The farmer is the owner of his land.”
The CM also sought to allay the fears about mandis would be closed. ” Not a single mandi was closed since June 2020, when farm laws are brought but a deliberate misinformation campaign has been run to misguide the farmers,” he made it clear. He said , in fact, these mandis were added under the “e-NAM” concept of One Nation One Market while the action is being taken to add over 1000 more mandis.
Further seeking to make farmers aware of the evil designs against them, the UP CM said that the people behind this , when in the government, either sold or closed sugar mills. “Our government set up new sugar mills in Pipraich and Munderwa in Eastern UO while the governments of SP, BSP sold or closed sugar mills of Kushinagar, Deoria and Maharajganj.
“The sugarcane farmers had thousands of crores of rupees of arrears while the current government has made a record payment of Rs 1.27 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers,” he said.
CM Yogi said that the Central and the state governments are of the definite view “If the farmer is happy, the village will be prosperous and the prosperity of the village-farmer will pave the way for the prosperity of the country.”
He said that for the first time, such a government had come in the country in 2014 which did unprecedented work for the welfare of farmers and included them in the agenda of the country’s politics.
“Soil health test cards, payment of one and a half times the MSP, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and farmers’ loan waiver scheme- these are some of the landmark welfare endeavours for the farmers under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi,” he added.
Yogi said that sharecroppers were also provided a security cover of five lakhs under the Chief Minister’s Farmer Accident Insurance while the pending irrigation projects were completed to increase the productivity of farming.
The Chief Minister said that in Uttar Pradesh last year, 68 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured at MSP this year and Rs 66000 crores were paid directly into the accounts of the farmers. He said as many as 2.42 crore farmers in the state received more than Rs 27000 crore rupees under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.
The CM further said that in four years, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has completed nine pending irrigation projects while 11 others will be completed by the end of this financial year. With this, 20 lakh hectares of agricultural land will be provided irrigation facilities while th Drip irrigation will increase this capacity by three times. CM said that the government is focusing on better use of technology to reduce the cost of farming and increase productivity. For this, one Krishi Vigyan Kendra is functioning in every district.
