Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Friday met the Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan at New Delhi regarding issues concerning agriculture and farmers of Punjab.
Randhawa, during his meeting with Tomar, brought up issues with regard to the State’s Cooperative sector institutions such as Markfed, Milkfed, Sugarfed besides apprising the Union Minister about farmers’ welfare issues and agricultural scenario in Punjab.
Bringing to the Union Minister’s notice various farmer and agriculture friendly initiatives undertaken by these institutions, Randhawa demanded a special package for the Rural Cooperative Agricultural Societies of Punjab with a special focus on those operating in the border areas.
The state Cooperation Minister also emphatically put forward the demand for a special package with regard to implementation of the drip irrigation system for conserving water besides for crop diversification.
Randhawa also apprised the Union Minister about various steps being undertaken by the Cooperation Department through Agricultural Cooperative Societies. Demanding cooperation for bailing out State’s farming sector from economic mess, the Minister solicited time for a special meeting on these issues.
Spokesperson said that the Union Minister assured that he would convene such a meeting after the Parliament session gets over on July 26. The Union Minister also assured Randhawa that the issues confronting Punjab’s agricultural sector and farmers welfare would be addressed on priority basis.
In his meeting with Paswan, Randhawa made a strong case for release of funds through SDF with regard to Modern Sugar Complex at Gurdaspur and Batala, in which apart from Sugar the plants for producing Ethanol, Electricity, CANG are being set up which would benefit the farmers hailing from the border areas.
The Cooperation Minister also emphatically took up the issue of granting speedy SDF loan to Bhogpur Mill as well as export subsidy and other subsidies to the rest of the Cooperative Sugar Mills in the State so as to ensure the sooner release of the pending amount of sugarcane price to the sugarcane growers.
Paswan, giving assurance for speedy redressal of the issues, said that he would extend every possible assistance to the farmers, especially those belonging to the border belt.