Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday accused the opposition parties of committing the cardinal sin by misleading farmers and spreading canard over the three agriculture laws for their narrow political ends.
"The government is open for amicable settlement of all issues through dialogue and the government is ready to provide all possible facilities and assistance to the farmers. Violence, arson and disrespect of the symbols of the Constitution is unacceptable," the chief minister said.
"For their narrow political ends, leaders of opposition parties are making irresponsible statements which are creating new fault lines. The government is sincerely working for the welfare of the farmers," he said.
Yogi Adityanath pointed out that the UP government had completed many irrigation projects which were pending for decades. "We inherited the same system of the government and officers yet we were able to add fresh capacity for irrigating 20 lakh hectare land, boost drip irrigation and enhance the income of farmers through crop diversification," he said.
Naming Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary, the chief minister said he made a deliberate misleading statement that the farmers would lose their land under the new agriculture law of contract farming. He also quoted specific instances of contract farming in the assembly constituency of Ram Govind Chaudhary in Ballia district. He said contract farming was being done in eastern UP for decades and there was never any dispute.
Making a scathing attack on the Congress, the chief minister said, "Some leaders of the Congress who are expert in the art of tweeting from Delhi have no idea of the ground reality and basic understanding of agriculture and do not know the difference between MRP and MSP as well as between sugarcane and mango but have become experts on agriculture laws."
The chief minister added, "The campaign by the opposition leaders against the agriculture laws is a grave sin against the interests of the farmers."
The chief minister asserted that the agriculture laws would prove to be a boon for farmers. He said the new agriculture laws came into being in June 2020 and since then no mandi had been closed.
"Why would we modernise the mandis if we had any plan to close them. In fact, the state government has been developing 27 mandis as modern kisan mandis and ripening and cold storage facilities are being provided in 24 mandis,'' he added.
The chief minister reiterated that the MSP would stay and the middlemen would be eliminated from mandis. He asserted that the three laws would further simplify the agri-trade for the betterment of farmers as contract farming would provide more benefits to them under the provisions of new laws.
Yogi Adityanath said that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government ensured that all 119 sugar mills continued to operate and 31 crore quintal of sugarcane was crushed during this period.
He said the government reduced the mandi fee and purchased wheat besides registering record purchase of paddy in the state.