The UP Assembly witnessed a war or words between the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and the main Opposition Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) over the plight of cane farmers. The leaders of both parties blamed each other responsible for their woes and traded charges.
The words like ‘chhalaawa’ (deceit) and ‘dhokha’ (cheating) were freely exchanged between Parliamentary Affairs minister Azam Khan and leader of Opposition, Swami Prasad Maurya. Both were trying to project their respedctive gobernments as the ‘true saviour of farmers’.
The spat began after Maurya charged the SP government of fooling the farming community. “During the BSP government, we had increased the cane price from Rs 145 to Rs 230. But the SP government is stuck at Rs 250 per quintal for the last three years,” Maurya pointed out.
The allegations were vociferously contested by Azam Khan who alleged that the previous BSP government had sold the sugar mills. to private buyers. “Your government has sold several mills and now you are shedding crocodile tears,” he said.
Maurya was again on his feet, explaining that those mills were sold which were closed for decades. “The funds from these mills were deposited at the state exchequer,” he said.
“Your government had sold those mills at throw away prices. But the `actual’ money was diverted to some place else. You know where it had gone. I know where this fund was diverted,” Azam Khan alleged.
Maurya shot back saying: “Mulayam Singh Yadav had sold Dala cement factory and when workers protested there, the police opened fire in which 21 people were killed.”
As the spat continued, Speaker Mata Prasad tried to intervene asking the leader of opposition to disengage from the argument. To this, an agitated Maurya shot bvack, “Why are you asking me IJ You are not saying a word to the minister.”
The issue was raised during Question Hour by BSP member Dharampal Singh, who sought to know how much payment has been made to the farmers whose crops were destroyed in the unseasonal rains last year.
Agriculture minister Vinod Singh alias Pandit Singh responded to the querry saying that insurance companies have distributed Rs 566.15 crore to 8.57 lakh farmers as compensation for the loss oftheir crops due to unseasonal rains.
Urea:
The UP government admitted that that farmers are paying Rs 50 to 60 extra per bag on urea as compared to neighbouring states and there was no proposal to give subsidy on its purchase. To protest the government’s reply, the BSP members staged a noisy walkout when their demand to waive it off was rejected by the minister.
Replying to the question of BJP member Shyam Deo Rai Choudhury, Minister of State for Secondary Education Vijay Bahadur Pal said that the state government could not waive off the additional tax on gas used by the Urea factories as the state would suffer a revenue loss of Rs 800 crore annually.
However the minister claimed that there is no shortage of urea in the present regime while admitting that the price of urea was less in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Bihar as compared to UP.
Bio-fertiliser:
To another question of BJP member lokendra Singh, Agriculture minister Vinod Singh alias Pandit Singh said that the government was committed to promoting bio-fertilizers and under a pilot project 15 districts have been taken up. He said that in 2015-16, the state government has sanctioned Rs 25 crore for the project.