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Prior to 2017, debts drove farmers to suicide: Yogi
Loans of 86 lakh farmers in Uttar Pradesh had been waived since the BJP government came to power, says chief minister
LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said loans of 86 lakh farmers in Uttar Pradesh had been waived since his government came to power while before 2017, mounting debts compelled farmers to commit suicide.
“Prior to 2017, there was no arrangement for electricity, fertilizers, and irrigation for farming in UP,” he said interacting with a group of sugarcane farmers here. a day after the Cabinet approved increase in the State-Advised Price (SAP) for sugarcane.
He said sugar mills faced challenges due to neglect of previous governments, leading to the closure of numerous mills. “When our government came to power, about 110 sugar mills were barely operational. They also had pending sugarcane payments from 2010 to 2017. We prioritized clearing the pending payments to sugarcane farmers and got 120 sugar mills operational,” he said.
During the event, cane farmers expressed gratitude, stating they were happy over the increase in SAP of sugarcane by ₹20 per quintal.
The CM mentioned that when his government came to power in 2017, the SAP for sugarcane was set at Rs. 315 per quintal, but the farmers were not even receiving that amount.
“In a gesture before the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, the government has increased the SAP for sugarcane as a gift to farmers. This decision was made keeping in mind the tradition of offering food to the deity ‘Annapurna’ before the worship of God,” he added.
He said the current generation was fortunate to witness the consecration ceremony of Lord Ram on January 22 after 500 years. Adityanath instructed farmers to organise ‘bhandara’ at various places in the village and participate in the ‘sankirtan’ (devotional singing) in temples.
The CM also directed them to clean temples in the morning and light diyas in homes and temples in the evening as part of the grand celebration of Deepotsav.
In the programme, state president of Kisan Morcha Kameshwar Singh expressed happiness over the increase in sugarcane SAP by ₹20 per quintal. He said the Yogi government’s decision to increase cane prices was historic.
Omveer Choudhary, a farmer from Meerut, said the Yogi government had given new direction to the state and expressed gratitude for the large-scale UP Police recruitments and employment to the youth.
He mentioned that before the consecration program, the increase in sugarcane prices had stirred the emotions of farmers in the state. Other sugarcane farmers like Anil Choudhary from Meerut, Dhananjay Ram Tripathi from Kushinagar, Rahul from Muzaffarnagar, and Shubham Tripathi from Gonda also expressed gratitude to the chief minister for the increase in cane prices.
