BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh on Friday hailed the Centre’s decision to allocate `200 crore in order to set up an online national agriculture market by integrating 585 wholesale markets across India. “This has once again proved that for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who puts ‘India First’, the farmers and the villages are not only the first priority but high on the agenda of his Government,” he said.
Acclaiming the announcement collectively made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Chugh said that the National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) is an innovation Indian farmer and agriculture was waiting for.
“Production only aspect, on which the farmer has been depending till now, does not empower them to effectively market their produce. Now, the farmer would be in a much better position as the flood-gates of a much larger and transparent market would be thrown open before the farming community through this innovative project,” he said.
“The farmer as well as the consumer will stand to gain as all 585 wholesale agriculture markets across the country would now get regulated and become transparent,” he said.Chugh said that giving a new dimension to the whole concept, department of agriculture and cooperation will set up the online agriculture market through the small farmers agri-business consortium (SFAC) by creation of a common electronic platform deployable in selected regulated markets across the country.
He said that this was a reply to those, particularly the Congress, who have been criticizing a year-old Narendra Modi government for the sake of criticism.
The only problem with the Congress is that they are feeling of ashamed of not having done anything for the people of the country, he said adding that the only contribution of the UPA governments was the scams by now known to even school children.