Ruling alliance partners in the State, Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday for doing fake farmers’ politics. They said the BJP did nothing for the farmers during its tenure, but now when the State Government is doing several works for the benefit of the farmers of the State it is spreading myth among people.
Addressing a Press meet the State Agriculture Minister, Badal said the State Government has fulfilled its promise. “But, for the last 18 years, has the BJP Government waived even one rupee for farmers? If there are figures of loan waiver, then they should make it public. I am thankful to BJP leaders that today after staying in homes during the Corona period, they remembered farmers. For three years Rs 493 crore were taken as premium and only Rs 79 crore were received in return, where did this sensitivity go at that time,” he added.
“BJP leaders, who are doing politics on the issue of payment of paddy purchase should tell that how much paddy was purchased during their. Whereas, in this coalition Government, there was a record purchase of paddy in 2020-21. Jharkhand State Food Corporation had set a target of 60.85 lakh tonnes of paddy procurement in the year 2020-21, against which 62.41 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured which is 102 per cent higher than last year. In lieu of this, the State Government had to pay Rs 943.21 crore as MSP and bonus. Rs 568.50 crore has been paid by the Government and Rs 374.71 crore is required for full payment,” he said.
The Minister said the State Government has waived the loans of over 2.46 lakh farmers as per its promise. “Rs 980.06 crore has been given to the banks by the Government to repay the loan. According to the data received from the banks, a total of 9.02 lakh farmers have taken loans, out of which the data of 5.61 lakh farmers has been uploaded so far, the loan waiver process of the remaining farmers will be completed soon,” he added.
Meanwhile, JMM's General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya has termed the agitation carried out by the BJP in the fields as a gimmick. They are doing a gimmick to hide the failures of their last five years of tenure, he added. “Hemant Government is friendly to the farmers and knows how to give them respect. The previous Government had considered only 5 lakh farmers of the State as registered, but the present Government has expanded its scope and has done the work of registering 9 lakh farmers. Not only this, 6 lakh farmers were also linked with Aadhaar,” said Bhattacharya.
The party General Secretary said that to hide the failures of the five-year tenure, the leaders of BJP had to enter the field which is shameful.