AState level committee will resolve the issues of farmers. It will coordinate between farmers and the State Government. Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced to set up the committee while talking to representatives of Bhartiya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh at Samanvay Bhavan here on Wednesday. In response, Chairman of the Mahasangh Dev Narayan Patel announced to call off its proposed strike. Minister for Agriculture Sachin Yadav, National President of Mahasangh Shiv Kumar Sharma were present.
Addressing the representative farmers, Kamal Nath said that it is top priority of the state government to address all the issues related to farmers and farm sector. About 65 percent population of the state is associated with agriculture sector. The economy of state cannot be strengthened without making farm sector prosperous. The state will make progress only when farmers' purchasing power increases. Loan waiving is a radical step in this direction.
The Chief Minister said that misinformation campaign was carried regarding loan waiving. The State Government's only concern is that all eligible farmers get the benefit of loan waiving. He said that if there are some confusion among the farmers regarding practical difficulties and hurdles in the process of loan waiving, the state government is alert and prompt to resolve them.
He urged the farmers to apprise their problems, suggestions and possible solutions to the Agriculture Minister. The State Government will act promptly. He said that it is believed that farmers are born and die in debt.
The State Government is committed to ending this belief permanently. Showing keen interest on the issues of vegetable, fruit and milk producing farmers, he said that a separate meeting will be organized to look into their issues.
Describing the process of loan waiving as a radical step, Nath said that loan upto Rs 2 lakh will be waived completely, the farmers whose loan amount exceeded Rs two lakh did not get banks' no-dues certificate.
The Chief Minister said that Government of India's cooperation will be needed to galvanize the farm sector.
National president of Bhartiya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh Shivkumar Sharma Kakkaji appreciated the initiative of the Chief Minister to hold a dialogue with the farmers. He said that when Kamal Nath was the Union Minister, he fought with full determination on global forums like WTO for protection of the interests of Indian farmers due to which not only did the import of many crops including wheat, gram, cotton stopped but export of the produce of Indian farmers became possible. He hoped that soon the government will take suitable decision on this.
Dev Narayan Patel termed the dialogue as meaningful and expressed satisfaction. He said that the only concern is that all the problems of farmers are resolved. The pro-active initiative of Kamal Nath is a welcome step. After coming to know about the concern of the State Government, the proposed strike stands called off.
Additional Chief Secretary Finance Anurag Jain, ACS WRD M Gopal Reddy Principal Secretary Agriculture and Cooperative Ajit Kesari, Principal Secretary Industries Rajesh Rajora and senior officers were present.