'Step-motherly treatment being meted out to farmers in Rajasthan': Union Minister Kailash Chaudhary

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary on Sunday accused the Congress-led state government of step-motherly treatment being meted out to the farmers.

He alleged that crop procurement at panchayat level has not started and the state government is yet to release Kharif crop subsidy, causing much problems to the farmers.

"Procurement of wheat, mustard and gram has not started due to less number of procurement centres in the state. 719 procurement centres in 11,341 panchayats of the state have not started crop procurement process. "Other states have started Kharif crop procurement whereas Rajasthan is lagging behind. The negligence of state government shows that step-motherly treatment is being meted out to farmers of Rajasthan," Chaudhary told reporters here through video conference from New Delhi.

The Centre has released a total amount of Rs 947.86 crore to Rajasthan for Kharif 2019-20. At the same time, the state government is yet to release subsidy of Rs 787.43 crore for Kharif 2019. It has not released the state subsidy of Rs 46.54 crore of Kharif 2018, Rs 24.89 crore of Rabi 2018-19 and Rs 716 crore of Kharif 2019.

The Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said that under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, first installment of Rs 2,000 amounting to Rs 15,841 crore has been deposited in bank account of 7.92 crore farmers, of which Rs 744.08 crore was paid to 37.20 lakh farmers in Rajasthan.

He said that Rabi crop procurement from farmers has been increased from 25 quintals per day to 40 quintals per day for providing relief to the farmers of Rajasthan during the lockdown. With this, the payment was made within three business days of receiving the report of the procurement of produce from the farmers.

Chaudhary said that under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, till now Rs 7,825 crore has been deposited in Jan Dhan account of 15.65 crore women, of which 67.22 lakh are women from Rajasthan. An amount of Rs 336.10 crore was provided to the women in the state.

The Ministry of Agriculture started Agricultural Transport Toll Free Numbers 1800 180 4200 and 14488 to address the problems faced in transportation of agricultural products. Farmers can call and coordinate by communicating the problems encountered in the inter-state transport of vegetables, fruits, seeds or pesticides, fertilizers etc, he said.

Image Credits: PTI