BHOPAL: Under pressure to improve the condition of farmers in the state, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Wednesday announced a slew of schemes, but skipped mentioning anything about farm loan waiver.
The CM announced Samadhan scheme under which farmers who are loan defaulters could avail fresh loans at zero percent interest. “We’re working on Samadhan scheme which will enable the loan defaulter farmers to get loans at zero percent interest,” said Chouhan. He said that since the farmers of the state have registered record agricultural output, the government was focused on fetching profitable prices for their produce.
“The farmers in the state don’t want loan waiver, but urgently need rightful prices for their produce. We have decided to constitute an Agricultural Produce Cost and Marketing Commission which will help in determining production cost of every produce, based on which the prices of the produce will be decided,” said Chouhan.
Also, the state government has come out with a mobile phone application which will help the government and farmers determine each crop’s actual area of cultivation. Based on it, the model rate of each crop under cultivation will be determined. The difference between the model rate and minimum support price of every crop will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of farmers.
Advocating the need to reduce big farmers’ dependence on agricultural output for livelihood, the CM said the government is finalizing a CM Yuva Krishak Udyami Scheme. Under the scheme, the children of big farmers will be sanctioned loan amounts ranging from `10 lakh to `2 crore to establish agro allied business units, like cold storage, food processing units and milk filling units.
Opposition blamed
The chief minister blamed the Opposition party for turning the peaceful farmers movement last month into a violent movement. “No one can imagine farmers indulging in arson and violence in Mandsaur, Ratlam and other districts. It was the unidentified masked men who indulged in violence and everyone knows who financed them and provided them with food,” said Chouhan.
The chief minister also denied the leader of Opposition Ajay Singh’s allegations that it was the CM’s reluctance to hold parleys with the non-Bhartiya Kisan Sangh farmers outfits that led to a peaceful farmers’ movement turning violent.
Ajay Singh had questioned why the Mandsaur police didn’t register a case of murder or attempted murder in the June 6 death of farmers in police firing.
“As per information with me, the post mortem report of the dead farmers mentions that no trace of bullets were found in the bodies. Is it possible?” Ajay asked. He questioned why the CM didn’t immediately go to meet kin of deceased farmers in Mandsaur.