The Samajwadi Party termed as 'false' the announcement made by PM Narendra Modi on farmers' welfare at a rally in Saharanpur on Thursday.
SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhary said on Friday that the farmers in UP Pradesh were already availing crop insurance and a propaganda was being done on the issue of payment of arrears to cane farmers.
"Its intriguing to see that senior Union ministers and leaders brazenly dishing out lies about crop insurance and arrear payment the cane growers,’’said Choudhary .
"UP is the only state which has taken concrete measures for farmers' welfare especially, cane growers. The state government has increased the support price for cane by Rs 40 per quintal in a year. Besdies, it has allocated 80 percent of the budget for agriculture and rural development,’’ pointed out Chaudhary.
Taking a dim view of the delay in payment to farmers by private sugar mills, the PM at the Saharanpur rally had issued a stern warning to the mill owners that his government won’t tolerate exploitation of farmers by the industry.
The SP leader alleged that the Centre was partisan in providing financial assistance to states which has hampered the payment of compensation to farmers in Bundelkhand and other drought-rabaged areas.
"The SP government is distributing free food grains packets to the drought hit farmers while the Centre made fun of their plight by sending an empty water train. The Centre has not responded so far to the CM's demand for providing funds for purchase of 10,000 water tankers for augmenting the supply in Bundelkhand,’’ said Chaudhary.