Farmers’ income did not double but BJP pressed the demand for MSP: Chandra Kumar

Agriculture Minister Chaudhary Chandra Kumar has said that for the last ten years, a ‘jumla’ government has been running at the Center under the leadership of BJP. He said that BJP had promised farmers to double their income but this has proved to be a mere statement. Far from doubling the income of the farmers, the BJP tried to forcefully crush the voice of the farmers demanding a law on minimum support price and more than 50 agitating farmers were killed.

Chaudhary Chandra Kumar said that the present state government is moving forward with sensitivity under the leadership of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu to increase the income of farmers. The state government has made a historic increase of Rs 13 in the minimum support price of cow milk to Rs 45, while the purchase price of buffalo milk has been increased to Rs 55 per litre. He said that Himachal Pradesh has become the first state to give minimum support price to farmers on purchase of milk. Along with this, there has been a historic increase of Rs 60 in MNREGA wages and the minimum support price of wheat produced through natural farming has been fixed at Rs 40 and the rate of maize has been fixed at Rs 30. He said that to increase the income of cattle farmers, the state government is setting up a milk processing plant with a capacity of 1 lakh 50 thousand liters per day at Dhagwar in Kangra district, the capacity of which can be increased to 3 lakh liters per day. This plant will be completely automated on which an amount of more than Rs 226 crore will be spent.

He said that in view of the problem of destitute animals, the present state government has increased the grant given to dependent cows in private cow shelters from Rs 700 to Rs 1200. Chaudhary Chandra Kumar said that the state government is making continuous efforts to strengthen the rural economy, because the state can be made self-reliant only by making the villages self-reliant. He said that it is a symbol of the will of the present state government that steps are being taken to encourage agriculture as self-employment. Apart from this, continuous efforts are being made to increase the income of farmers by connecting agriculture with modern technology. The Agriculture Minister said that all these efforts of the present state government will prove to be a milestone in the direction of increasing the income of farmers and strengthening the rural economy.