Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Ravindra Choubey on Tuesday hit out at the BJP for its alleged failure to keep promises of giving paddy bonus to farmers during its 15-year regime.
Talking to media persons here at party’s state headquarters, Rajiv Bhawan, he said the Congress was not like the BJP and claimed that it has fulfilled both its promises to farmers-- first of farm loan waiver and the second of procuring paddy at minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2500.
Choubey also lambasted the Narendra Modi-led Union government for its alleged failure in delivering the promise made to farmers. It had promised to provide 1.5 times the production cost of the crop as per Swaminathan committee recommendations but had failed to do so, he alleged.
He further charged that opposition BJP does not have now even a single issue to grill the ruling Congress. “Before asking any question to us, they must first tell as to why they failed to provide Rs 300 bonus to farmers during their regime,” he said.
Replying to another query, Choubey further said that the Congress government in the state was well prepared to provide Rs 2500 MSP for paddy this Kharif season. “We are ready to provide the MSP from our state resources and are not anticipating any support from the Centre,” he said.
“It was our promise in the election manifesto and we will fulfill the promise. Last year there was procurement target of 80 lakh metric tons of paddy and this year it is increased to 85 lakh metric tons,” he added.