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Venkaiah Naidu bats for farmers again, asks govt to ease produce transportation in lockdown
This is the second time in a month that Naidu has asked authorities to look into problems and issued faced by farmers during the lockdown and advised them to facilitate the smooth conduct of farming activities and transportation of produce during this period.
Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday asked the Centre and state governments to ensure there is hassle-free transportation of agricultural produce to markets during the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown pointing to reports about farmers’ distress.
This is the second time in a month that Naidu has asked authorities to look into problems and issued faced by farmers during the lockdown and advised them to facilitate the smooth conduct of farming activities and transportation of produce during this period.
“There have been some reports of farmers’ distress, particularly horticultural growers not getting remunerative prices for their produce owing to lack of transportation facilities to markets,” Venkaiah Naidu tweeted on Saturday.
Naidu said he has spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and railways minister Piyush Goyal on the need to ensure timely delivery of agriculture produce to markets and mitigate the hardship faced by farmers.
The vice president pointed out a solution as he put in a word of praise for the Indian Railways.
“In this regard, the decision of Indian Railways to resume goods and parcel services is welcome. It will provide much-needed relief to farmers to transport the perishables in time,” he said.
“State governments and district authorities must step in to make optimum use of these services by Railways so that farmers do not incur losses. They must ensure smooth connectivity between the farm and the nearest railway facility,” the vice-president tweeted.
Naidu said he was confident that the Centre and states will “effectively coordinate and implement various measures to address the concerns of the farmers”.
In his interaction with Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar last month, the vice president had laid stress on safeguarding the interests of both producers and consumers.
Naidu had called for more focus on perishable agro-produce such as fruits and vegetables and said that special care must be taken of storage and marketing of these perishables.
The vice president had asked the authorities to ensure that there is no hindrance during such transportation as he had laid stress on the need to ensure smooth transportation of farm produce.
