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Kisan Samman Diwas on December 23: Tractors to be gifted to 93 ‘lucky’ farmers, 51 to get keys from CM Yogi
The scheme seeks to give prize coupons on a monthly, quarterly and half-yearly basis to farmers on their mandi transaction of ₹5,000 and above.
Ahead of the Krishi Kumbh that has now been rescheduled to mid-February, the Uttar Pradesh government will gift one tractor each to 93 farmers shortlisted on the basis of lucky draws and belonging to different districts on December 23, former Prime Minister the late Chaudhary Charan Singh’s birth anniversary observed as Kisan Samman Diwas every year.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will personally hand over tractor keys to 51 farmers at a state-level function at the Lok Bhavan on December 23 when many other progressive farmers will also get cash rewards of ₹1 lakh each for good agri practices, officials in the know of things said.
“This year, 93 farmers have been shortlisted following lucky draws for free distribution of tractors in the state and 51 of them will receive the keys from the chief minister on the occasion of the Kisan Samman Diwas here on December 23,” a senior Mandi Parishad official said.
“The last tractor distribution was done in December 2021,” he added.
The tractors and many other items are gifted to farmers under the Mandi Parishad’s ‘Mukhya Mantri Krashak Uphar Yojana’ launched in 2003 with a view to encouraging farmers to bring their agri produce to market produce committees (mandis) for the sale.
The scheme seeks to give prize coupons on a monthly, quarterly and half-yearly basis to farmers on their mandi transaction of ₹5,000 and above. Tractors and other gifts are given to farmers on the basis of lucky draws.
Currently, under the scheme that was amended and upgraded gradually, six-monthly bumper lucky draws are supposed to be held to distribute two tractors (35 HP) each in all the 18 divisions to the farmers winning the first prize. “However, it is not possible to hold bumper draws every year for different reasons,” the official said. While tractors, according to him, are purchased centrally by the Mandi Parishad, other gifts are procured by division-level committees headed by divisional commissioners.
In the cold storage for several years, the scheme was revived by the Yogi Adityanath government amid farmers’ countrywide unrest over the Centre contentious three farm laws (now repealed) in December 2020 when, for the first time, tractor keys were distributed by the chief minister himself at a state-level function. The exercise was then seen as a move to earn the goodwill of agitating farmers.
