BHOPAL: Opposition Congress accused the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh on Friday of manipulating figures of agricultural production to get the Krishi Karman Award five times over the past few years.
The national chief spokesperson of the Congress, Randeep Singh Surjewala presented before journalists in Bhopal on Friday evening, figures pertaining to agricultural production in the state since 2011-12 and alleged that the present BJP government in the state sent deceptive figures to the centre over the last few years to get the award instituted by the UPA regime in 2010-11 for maximum agricultural production in the country.
The Congress-led UPA regime instituted the award in 2010-11 for rewarding states for maximum increase in total agricultural production and for an increase in the production of individual crops."As per the figures submitted by the MP government in the past the total agricultural production rose from 229 lakh tonne in 2011-12 to 287 lakh tonne in 2012-13, which translated into a 25 per cent jump in aggregate agricultural production that ultimately fetched the state the Krishni Karma Award for 2012-13," Surjewala said while presenting the figures.
He added the next year the state government reduced the total agricultural production figures of 2012-13, from the previous 287 lakh tonne to just 234 lakh tonne, besides submitting that the corresponding figure for 2013-14 was 300 lakh tonne, which translated into 28per cent growth but couldn't fetch the state the national award.
In the year 2014-15 (for which MP received the national award for maximum agricultural production), the figures of 2013-14 were lowered from 300 lakh tonne to 242 lakh tonne, while the figures recorded for 2014-15 stood at 320 lakh tonne, which amounted to 32 per cent jump in total agricultural production, alleged Surjewala.
In 2015-16 also, the state government again lowered the last year (2014-15 figures) from 320 lakh tonne to 286 lakh tonne against 339 lakh tonne for 2015-16, leading to 18.35% jump, but it wasn't enough to fetch the award, the Congress leader said. Surjewala further alleged that the two times the state got the Krishi Karman award for maximum production of wheat in the country, the statistics submitted for getting it was also fudged just like the figures were manipulated for fetching award for total agricultural production.
However, when queried by journalists as to how the UPA regime in the past failed to spot the discrepancy in the statistics submitted by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, the Congress leader questioned: "was forging the figures a bigger mistake or not properly scrutinizing the figures sent by the state government graver."
While attacking the state government, he said by fudging figures to paint a rosy picture of agricultural production, just to get an award, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has duped the people of the state, (particularly the farmers who are an abysmal state) and the central government also.
Dubbing it as a blot on the credibility of the CM who prides self as farmer's son, Surjewala said Chouhan has lost the moral right to continue even as acting CM for a single day.
"He (Chouhan) should apologize to the farmers of MP for submission of the fudged figures for getting the national award." Quoting the figures from the Agriculture Census released by the Narendra Modi government in September, Surjewala said the census figures revealed the actual situation of farmers and agriculture in the state.
It showed that area under cultivation in Madhya Pradesh shrunk 1.66 lakh hectares between 2010-11 and 2015-16.
Owing to this the number of marginal farmers cultivating in an area of less than one hectare grew by 24 per cent, while the number of big farmers from Scheduled Caste category shrunk by 36 per cent and number of farmers from Scheduled Tribe dipped by 26 per cent, which speaks volumes about the plight of farmers in the state.
Reacting to the Congress leader's accusations against the state government, state BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal said that after failing to counter among people the development done by Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, the Congress is making false accusations to defame the government.