Raipur, September 25, 2012
Rejecting the government’s new agriculture policy and terming it mere deception, former PCC president Dhanendra Sahu on Tuesday said it was really surprising that the ruling party awoke well after nine years and thought to take initiative for farmers.
“Ironically, the government first acquired large tracts of agricultural lands and gave them to industrialists. Now, it has come up with new agriculture policy to obtain favour of the farmers,” Sahu jeered.
He alleged that the BJP completely ignored agriculture sector during its nine-year regime. “Black marketing of fertilisers, provision of duplicate pesticides and substandard seeds are achievements of the ruling party. The then Congress government had made an arrangement of providing fertilisers to the farmers through mandi board on no profit no loss basis, but the existing BJP government has closed down this system and is rather encouraging black marketing of fertilisers. The government has also failed in increasing crop area,” he said.
He pointed that the government not only sold irrigation water to the industrialists, but also refused to give free electricity for pumps up to 5 HP for irrigation to farmers.
“Besides, the Agriculture department lacks adequate experts who could give technical inputs to the farmers on regular basis. The government is not even fulfilling its promise to disburse Rs 270 paddy bonus to the farmers,” he added.
“The farmers are upset with the government’s apathy towards them. They are not even getting crop insurance. Due to financial crisis, several farmers have committed suicide, but the government has not taken any measure help them,” he said.
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