Claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh was farmer-friendly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that nowhere in the state were farmers persecuted in the past one year and instead they got good remunerative prices for their produce.
Yogi also slammed the opposition for shedding crocodile tears in the name of farmers,
Addressing a rally after inaugurating a sugar mill in Munderwan in Basti on Thursday, Yogi said that the previous governments sold off sugar mills at throwaway prices while the BJP government was trying to revive sick mills.
“We are committed to starting operations in five mills. Two of them have started operation in Pipraich (Gorakhpur) and at Munderwan (Basti). The other mills will be made operational in due course of time,” Yogi declared, adding that the crushing capacity of mills would be increased to 500 TCD in the next three years and the mills would generate 18 megawatt electricity which would be increased to 27 MW.
The Munderwan sugar mill has been revived at a cost of Rs 384 crore.
The Chief Minister said that the sugar mill would bring economic revolution in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“This mill will give direct jobs to 700 people and benefit 35,000 farmers indirectly. Once more mills start operation in this region, it will boost the economy,” Yogi said.
The Chief Minister spoke at length about the pro-farmer decisions that his government had taken in the past one year. He talked about crop loan waiver scheme launched by his government and clearance of cane dues of over Rs 24,000 crore in a transparent manner.
“Not only this, the government made record purchase of paddy and wheat and made payments directly into the accounts of farmers through RTGS,” he said.
“In the past one year, there has been no report of farmers protesting for fertilisers and seeds. During this period, the government gave 1.85 lakh houses to the poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and over 56,000 majras (habitats) were electrified and over 32 lakh people were given free power connections,” Yogi said.
The Chief Minister said that during previous regimes, electricity was supplied in abundance only in four districts while the rest 71 districts suffered in neglected.
“In the BJP rule, all districts are getting power equally. Electricity is supplied in a manner under which districts get power supply for 24 hours, tehsils for 20 hours and villages for 18 hours.” he said.