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Help farmers, Maya tells govt; in counter attack, BJP minister says working for their welfare
In a series of tweets, BSP chief Mayawati said the government’s latest announcement of spending ₹192 crores (that is only about 38 crores per year in the next five years) for crop protection and storage in a state with huge farmer society like UP, was very little in comparison to the large number of farmers in the state. The government should stop ignoring the farmers, she said.
Lucknow: A day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered survey in all the districts and postponed the recovery of land revenue and irrigation charges, BSP chief Mayawati said due to not getting remunerative price for their produce and sugarcane arrears, the farmers in UP were already very upset and the weak monsoon had now increased their worries. The government should immediately start helping them at every level.
In a series of tweets, the BSP chief said the government’s latest announcement of spending ₹192 crores (that is only about 38 crores per year in the next five years) for crop protection and storage in a state with huge farmer society like UP, was very little in comparison to the large number of farmers in the state. The government should stop ignoring the farmers, she said.
Countering the BSP chief’s statement, agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi said chief minister Yogi Adityanath had given an amount of more than ₹192 crore for crop protection to reduce the loss of farmers from standing crop to its storage. This amount was 56 times more than the amount of ₹123 crore released for crop protection and storage during the tenure of Mayawati government from 2007 to 2012.
In a series of tweets, Shahi said those who cheated sugarcane farmers by closing 24 sugar mills during their rule and selling sugarcane at throwaway prices were shedding crocodile tears today. The Yogi government was spending more than ₹38 crore every year for crop protection, whereas only about ₹24 crore were given during the BSP government tenure, he said.
Taking a jibe at Mayawati, Shahi said that those exploiting farmers and forcing them to commit suicide were showing false sympathy. The people of the state knew who their well-wishers were, she said. Satisfied with the good governance and farmer-friendly policies and programmes of the BJP government, the farmers had re-elected the BJP, giving unprecedented support and affection to the government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, he said.
Those who locked the sugar mills during their rule were today talking about sugarcane dues. They should look carefully and understand the amount paid to the sugarcane farmers under the Yogi government. The Yogi government had paid more than ₹1.78,000 crores to the sugarcane farmers since 2017, which was more than three times since the Mayawati administration. The BJP government was buying wheat, paddy and maize from farmers at MSP, whereas under Mayawati government, only wheat and paddy were purchased from farmers at MSP.
