Centre has taken holistic steps for welfare of farmers, opposition misguiding them: Nadda

By Pragya Kaushika
New Delhi [India], May 21 : Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Friday accused the opposition parties of misguiding farmers on the issue of MSP and new farm laws and lauded the central government for initiating "holistic" steps for their progress.
Addressing representatives of party's kisan morcha engaged in 'Sewa hi Sangathan' and 'Mera booth Corona Mukt' to tackle COVID-19 and its impact, Nadda recalled the campaign started by the kisan morcha to reach out to farmers and brief them on the benefit of new agriculture laws.
He said the Narendra Modi government has been dedicated to the welfare of farmers from the first day it took office and several initiatives have been taken for their welfare.
"Many political parties spoke about farmers but did nothing. Schemes like Kisan Samman Nidhi, Kisan credit card, soil health card, neem-coated urea were implemented for farmers," he said.
Nadda said that the government agencies continue to procure crops at minimum support price (MSP) against and substantial procurement has been done from Punjab.
"Yet our opposition is crying over MSP. PM Modi has said repeatedly that MSP will stay. The government is ensuring that middlemen don't cheat farmers of their dues now. Agriculture experts are claiming that this time, the government has done record purchase of wheat," Nadda said.
He said several steps have been taken to boost income of farmers and added that 9.5 crore beneficiaries were distributed Rs 20,000 crore under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi on May 14.
Nadda said Rs 1.36 lakh crore has been transferred to farmers under the Kisan Samman Nidhi and Rs 60,000 crore have been transferred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"For the first time, Bengal has also received the benefit of the scheme. Bengal remained excluded till now and we took up the matter strongly with the government," he said.
Nadda said that the Prime Minister took a historic decision to increase DAP subsidy by 140 per cent on May 19. "The government will bear the expenditure of Rs 14,775 crore," he said.
He said Modi government has paved the way for 'One country, one market' and has taken steps so that farmers can sell their produce anywhere.
He lauded kisan morcha for its efforts to inform farmers about the new farm laws. "I have been told that on the passing of laws, 8,581 tractors were worshipped. Many ways were adopted to publicize new agriculture laws," he added.
Nadda said steps have been taken to provide fertilizer subsidy through direct benefit transfer, bamboo was removed from trees category and e-Nam platform has been started.
"We changed the name of the ministry to include farmers' welfare in it. An Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been allocated to boost farmers income and their welfare. Kisan morcha should ensure that this information reaches out to farmers," he said.
He recalled that a scheme has been started to provide a monthly pension of Rs 3000 to farmers.
Nadda also talked about steps to create FPOs and increase number of central agriculture universities.