Amid the ongoing Congress’ protest against three farm laws and Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled visit to the state on October 7, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that no one will be allowed to take law and order in their own hands in the State.
The tendency of Congress to lie will not be allowed to continue, Khattar while talking to the mediapersons during a programme organized on “Progressive Farmers’ Conference and Discussion on Agriculture Ordinance” in Karnal.
During his two-day visit to Haryana, Rahul Gandhi will visit various districts during the ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ against the agricultural-related laws and also meet farmers of the state.
Taking a dig at Congress, the Chief Minister said that before this, they had protested regarding the ‘Citizen Amendment Bill’, the removal of Article-370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the ‘Ram Janam Bhoomi’ but no one was harmed.
He said that when nothing happened back then, nothing will happen even now. All of this is going to end very soon because people and farmers have now understood everything. Farmers and Arthiyas are being misled but they will not fall prey to such tactics, he added
Attacking Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing protest in Punjab, Khattar said that it seems that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has no other work.
While lambasting the Congress party for misleading the farmers for their vested interests, the Chief Minister said that today, demand is being raised to bring MSP under the Act. The Congress remained in power in the Centre and State on different occasions between the year 1966 to 2014 and why they did not bring any Act to give legal guarantee to MSP, he questioned.
He said that if the Congress is truly a well wisher of farmers, it should ask its Governments in Rajasthan and Punjab to purchase Bajra (Millet), Sunflower seeds and Moong on MSP as already being done in Haryana. This time we have also decided to purchase Maize on MSP in the state. Each and every grain of Maize would be purchased by the State Government, he added.
Assuring the farmers that the MSP regime will continue, the Chief Minister said that the new farm laws recently introduced by the Central Government are in the larger interest of farmers and the positive impact of these reforms in the agriculture sector will be visible in the near future.
He said that efforts are being made to ensure that farmers earn income of minimum Rs 1 lakh per acre.
Addressing the progressive farmers during the “Progressive Farmers Conference and Discussion on Agriculture Acts”, he said that the agriculture and farmers form the basis of all welfare policies and programmes of the Central and State Government.
There is a need to make such arrangements that the farmers are not required to sell even a single grain of their produce on MSP rather they are able to sell it on a price higher than the MSP, he added.
He assured that the entire produce of the farmers would be procured in the mandis of the State in case they do not get higher prices outside.
Earlier, the farmers were able to sell their produce at a single place but now the new Farms Act has given them the freedom to sell their crop anywhere, Khattar said.
The Chief Minister further said that as land holdings in the state are continuously shrinking, schemes are being prepared to assist those farmers who have small land holdings and are completely dependent only on agriculture by encouraging them to venture into agro-allied activities like dairy farming, bee-keeping, fisheries etc so that their income could be increased. Apart from this, such farmers would also be provided guidance for the marketing of their produce.
He said that contract farming will help the farmers to get assured income.
After consultation with the Arhtiyas and farmers, it has been decided that those farmers who want payment through Arhtiyas would be given payment through Arhtiyas and those who intend to get their payment through bank, the amount would be deposited into their bank accounts, Manohar Lal added.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister also listed various other steps taken by the present State Government for the welfare of farmers in the state.