SP walk-out in U.P. assembly over doubling farmers’ income, caste census

The SP members raised the issues in the House through questions and decided to stage a walk-out when the state government replies failed to satisfy them . Minister for agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi, replying to a question of Samajwadi Party members Manoj Kumar Pandey and Akhilesh, said the agriculture growth rate was only 3.6 percent at the end of the tenure of the SP-led government.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party members staged a walk out twice during the question hour in the state legislative assembly here on Thursday, over the issue of doubling the income of farmers and the demand to hold a caste census in Uttar Pradesh.

Replying to a question of Samajwadi Party member Sangram Yadav, the state government said it did not propose to hold caste census in Uttar Pradesh (Pic for representation)

The SP members raised the issues in the House through questions and decided to stage a walk-out when the state government replies failed to satisfy them . Minister for agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi, replying to a question of Samajwadi Party members Manoj Kumar Pandey and Akhilesh, said the agriculture growth rate was only 3.6 percent at the end of the tenure of the SP-led government. He said the agriculture growth had increased considerably following installation of Yogi Adityanath government in the state in 2017.

Shahi listed 23 government schemes launched to benefit the farmers in the state. He said the state government recommended a minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers which was equivalent to one and a half times of the input cost. This had resulted in unexpected growth in the income of farmers. He said the prices that farmers got had increased by 7.5 percent in 2017-2018, 8.3 percent in 2018-2019, 9.8 percent in 2019-2020, 7.1 percent in 2020-2021, 21.2 percent in 2021-2022 and 6.8 percent (interim) in 2022-2023.

Later, replying to a question of Samajwadi Party member Sangram Yadav, the state government said it did not propose to hold caste census in Uttar Pradesh. Minister for agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi said the Bihar government did not hold any caste census as had been claimed. He said holding caste census was the prerogative of the union government as per the provisions of the Constitution of India. He said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had shown disrespect to the women in the Bihar House. The SP members, however, were not satisfied and staged a walk-out. Minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna also said the union government had the power to hold the caste census.