September 19, 2023

Punjab: Punjab’s agriculture sector to be touted as model before India: Kejriwal | India News

CHANDIGARH: AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that his party-led government in Punjab will present the state’s agricultural sector as a “model” before the country, just like the party l has done in the education and health sectors at the national level. Capital city.
Kejriwal also praised the Punjab government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, for making “farmer-friendly” decisions.
“In Punjab, agriculture is a very big issue. Our aim is that just as we have presented the education, health and power sectors in Delhi as models, we will present the agriculture of the Punjab as a role model in front of the country,” the national leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said here.
He said the work done by his party government in the education, health and power sectors in Delhi has been widely appreciated.
Kejriwal was addressing a gathering of farm families who died during a year-long agitation against three controversial Center Farm Bills that have since been repealed.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao and were also present on the occasion.
Kejriwal said children of lawyers, doctors and actors want to follow their parents’ professions, “but a farmer’s son doesn’t want to become a farmer because farming is no longer a profitable business.”
“We are going to create such a model where a farmer’s son will say he wants to be a farmer,” he said.
This model of agriculture will be replicated by other states to improve their agrarian economy on the model of Punjab, he added.
The AAP supremo said his party’s government’s top priority in Punjab is to increase farmers’ incomes.
Unless their incomes are increased, farmers will continue to commit suicide and remain trapped in debt, he said.
Kejriwal said that the Punjab government has announced a minimum support price (MSP) for the “moong” (green gram) crop and Rs 1,500 per acre for farmers who sow paddy using the direct seeding rice technique.
These decisions can only be made by Mann, who comes from an agricultural background and understands the agricultural sector, Delhi’s chief minister said.
He told the families of farmers who died during the unrest that the whole country was with them.
Mann reiterated his government’s strong commitment to making agriculture economically viable and profitable in order to motivate young people to engage in it with pride and dignity.
“This ceremony, held to honor the families of soldiers and farmers, reflects our deep respect and commitment to the adage ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’,” he said.
Addressing the “apathetic” attitude of previous governments who “blatantly ignored” the agricultural sector due to their “myopic” outlook, Mann said it was ironic that a farmer who owns the most land fertile lands with the highest yield, compared to any other part of the country and even across the world, live in scarcity and struggle to get two meals a day.
On the contrary, his peers on foreign coasts with the least fertile land due to harsh climatic conditions lead a comfortable life, the chief minister said.
Addressing previous governments in Punjab, he said, “They failed to implement farmer-friendly initiatives for the welfare and prosperity of farmers, who were practically pushed into a debt trap. due to meager income caused by low yield and high input prices, thus making farming absolutely unprofitable.”
Mann said his government has taken several innovative initiatives such as motivating farmers to sow “moong” with the assurance that it will be purchased on the MSP, a financial incentive of Rs 1,500 per acre for the promotion of DSR technique, in addition to taking significantly increase crop diversification within two months of taking charge.
He lamented that previous governments had forced the state’s ‘annadata’ (food givers) to become ‘beggars’ and said his government would do everything possible to restore their ‘annadata’ status.
“My government’s top priority is to free farmers from debt,” the chief minister said.
Rao and Kejriwal handed out checks for Rs 3 lakh each to the families of farmers who died during the unrest and Rs 10 lakh each to the families of four soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash in eastern Ladakh with the Chinese army.
The checks were given to 567 farming families in Punjab and 150 in Haryana.
Telangana Minister V Prasanth Reddy, MP Nama Nageshwara Rao and Peasant Leader Rakesh Tikait were also present on the occasion among others.