NDA governments stood for farmers’ welfare, says Modi in Maharashtra

The Prime Minister releases the 18th instalment of PM Kisan Nidhi scheme

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (October 5, 2024) said the NDA government, in the States and at the Centre, always stood for the welfare of farmers. He said the Congress hates Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi as the scheme does not give any scope for corruption.

While distributing the 18th instalment of funds under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi in Washim, Maharashtra, Mr. Modi said farmers in Vidarbha and other regions in the State have faced great hardships for many decades. “The governments of Congress and its allies had left no stone unturned in making the farmers miserable and poor. As long as the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was here, it had only two agendas. First- to stop the projects related to farmers. Second- to do corruption in the money of these projects,” he said. 

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He alleged that the Congress government in Karnataka stopped the additional amount the erstwhile BJP government used to give farmers along with the Kisan Samman Nidhi. He added that the farmers of Telangana are today questioning the State government on the poll promise of loan waivers.

Apart from the ₹20,000-crore worth 18th instalment to about 9.5 crore farmers, Mr. Modi also launched various initiatives such as distribution of the fifth instalment of NaMo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana, the dedication of more than 7,500 projects under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), 9,200 farmer producer organisations (FPOs), five solar parks across Maharashtra with a total capacity of 19 MW and the Unified Genomic Chip for cattle and indigenous sex-sorted semen technology.

The Prime Minister said that the Maharashtra government strives to provide double benefits to its farmers. The NaMo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana, he said, will benefit about 90 lakh farmers. He praised the zero electricity bill policy for farmers by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s government.

Union Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan said not only Kisan Samman Nidhi but also 109 high-yielding new seed varieties have been dedicated to the farmers by Mr. Modi’s government. He said when the price of soyabean fell, Mr. Modi took a decision in the interest of farmers and imposed 20% import duty on soyabean oil coming from abroad and as a result, the price of soyabean is now increasing and farmers are also getting good prices. “Prime Minister Modi reduced the export duty from 40% to 20% so that onion producing farmers of Maharashtra can get better prices,” Mr. Chouhan said.

Published - October 05, 2024 10:53 pm IST