Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday met the representatives of separate khap panchayats of the state who voiced their grievances.
The meeting is being considered important in view of the agitation going on since the past 100 days at the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh border against the three agricultural laws. The chief minister heard their issues and assured them of all possible assistance. The chief minister said the new farm laws were enacted with the objective to double the income of farmers.
"The farmers will get the benefit of the new agricultural laws implemented by the Central government. The farm laws have been enacted with the objective to double the income of farmers. These laws will ensure a continuous increase in farmers' income," Yogi Adityanath said in the meeting.
"The state government is implementing programmes and schemes in the interest of farmers. It is a result of this that under Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi, Uttar Pradesh has been awarded the first prize for the best performance in the country," the chief minister said.
He added that the state government was making sincere efforts for the welfare of farmers under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as farmers were the government's priority.
The khap representatives were accompanied by several Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs.
Earlier, the khap representatives, who had come with Budhana MLA Umesh Mallik and Shamli MLA Tejendra Birwal, had met BJP's state president Swatantra Dev Singh and Panchayati Raj Minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary at their residences on Friday. They had raised the electricity and sugarcane issues.
The khap representatives said that there was resentment among the common farmers in western UP due to increased electricity tariff, delay in cane price payment and no increase in state advisory prices of sugarcane.
Harvir Singh of Phugana Thamba said that when irrigation from state tube wells and canals could be free, why the private tube wells of farmers could not be provided electricity free of cost or at low rates.
The khap representatives said that sugarcane was the main crop in western Uttar Pradesh and the government should focus on the betterment of sugarcane farmers. They said for a long time, the farmers were not getting the cane arrears while the interest they had to pay on loans taken to buy seeds kept increasing. They said the hike in power tariff was also causing a crisis in payment of the electricity bills.
Bhupendra Chaudhary explained the agricultural bills in detail to the khap representatives, saying there was nothing anti-farmer in them. He pointed out that in the coming time, agricultural investment could be increased only through the private sector. He said the new agricultural laws would increase competition in the market and the farmers would get higher prices for their crops.
The delegation comprised Rajendra Singh Malik, Subhash Walian Sarvekhap Minister, Rajveer Singh Malik Thambedar, Harveer Singh, Rajpal Singh, Feru Singh, Karan Singh, Sunil Kumar, Ramveer Singh, Arvind Malik, Sarveer Singh, Sarvender Singh and Dharamvir Singh.