Yogi govt paid Rs 1.25 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers: BJP's western UP Chief Mohit Beniwal

The Yogi Adityanath-led government has made payments worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers in the last four years, BJP's western Uttar Pradesh chief Mohit Beniwal said here on Saturday.

Beniwal made the claim during a programme held in Noida to mark the completion of four years of the state government led by the BJP, amid the ongoing farmers' protest on Delhi's borders since November 2020 over new contentious central farm laws.

He also said that UP has reached among top five states of the country due to the development works done in the last four years.

The event was attended by Gautam Buddh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma, Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Nagar and Noida MLA Pankaj Singh, among others.

"Under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the government is ensuring all-round development of the state with the motto of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas'," Beniwal said.

"Payments worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore have been made to sugarcane farmers and loans worth Rs 36,000 crore of 86 lakh farmers waived in the last four years," Beniwal said, according to a statement issued by the BJP's Gautam Buddh Nagar media in-charge Tanmay Shankar.

His claims have come at a time when farmers in western Uttar Pradesh have alleged that their payments against sugarcane have been pending for a long time while many resent there has been no change in the minimum support price (MSP) for the crop in the last three years.

Sugarcane is a major crop cultivated in parts of western UP, including districts like Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Meerut, where farmers have been vocal and supportive about the ongoing protests against the new farm laws.

During Saturday's programme, Beniwal listed out infrastructure projects like the expressways, the upcoming Jewar airport and the Noida film city, among others as achievements of the BJP-led state government and claimed that work of “several years” has been completed in just four years.

He said the government has organised a successful Kumbh in Prayagraj and a grand Ram temple is being built in Ayodhya, which is on its way to becoming a world-class tourist centre, according to the statement.

As it completes four years in power, the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government is holding special events across the state to showcase achievements during the tenure.