Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav cautioned the Yogi Adityanath government over growing resentment among farmers and resultant serious consequences for the government. He alleged that there was no let up in the miseries of farmers ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh in March, 2017.
“Even as sugarcane crushing season is to commence, the State Administered Price (SAP) of cane is yet to be announced by the government. The government should announce the SAP of at least Rs 450 per quintal,” Akhilesh said.
The SP chief said that the SP government had increased the SAP by Rs 40 per quintal while the BJP government had failed to clear the outstanding dues of cane farmers.
He said that the farmers were already facing distress due to sharp rise in prices of agriculture inputs.
“Farmers are deep in debt due to losses suffered in the last few years leading to several suicides. The delay in opening of procurement centres by official agencies for purchase of paddy at minimum support price has also exposed the anti-farmer mindset of the BJP regime. Due to lack of procurement centres, farmers are forced to make distress sale of paddy to brokers and grain traders,” he alleged.
Accusing the BJP government of defrauding farmers, the SP chief said that the BJP government had been claiming for the last five years of doubling farmers income but was yet to announce a credible programme and road map for achieving the objective.