Uttar Pradesh: Adityanath hits out at SP for apathy towards sugarcane farmers

Adityanath said a farmer previously dependent on moneylenders is now able to benefit from government schemes after BJP came to power

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused the Samajwadi Party of apathy towards sugarcane farmers, alleging they had to kill themselves and burn their crops during the SP rule because of lack of water and electricity for irrigation and timely payment of dues.

However, Adityanath claimed the BJP government, which came to power in 2017 under his leadership, has ensured that the produce of farmers is purchased on time and their dues are cleared without delay. He claimed farmers were included in the government's agenda for the first after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre in 2014.

"Earlier, farmers used to resort to suicide. Today, I can say in the last six years, no 'annadata' in Uttar Pradesh had to take their own life. We have paid the sugarcane price and purchased paddy and wheat on time," he said.

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"We have freed sugarcane farmers from the clutches of brokers and today farmers do not have to wander around in search of the slip because their slip arrives on their smartphone," the chief minister added.

He said a farmer previously dependent on moneylenders is now able to benefit from government schemes like Soil Health Card, Kisan Bima Yojana, Agricultural Irrigation Scheme, and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi.

Flagging off 77 tractors for farm machinery banks set up in cooperative sugarcane and sugar mill societies, Adityanath said, "Today is going to be a historic day for sugarcane farmers when on the eve of Holi, Rs 2 lakh crore will be sent directly to their bank accounts through DBT."

He said 2.60 crore farmers in UP are now benefitting from Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Nidhi. "Within the last three-and-a-half years, we have done the work of transferring an amount of Rs 51,000 crore to their accounts."

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Asserting that a farmer has no caste, creed, or religion, Adityanath said, "We all know what was the situation in the state before 2017. There was no electricity and no water for irrigation. We have now provided irrigation facilities to 22 lakh hectares of land."

The CM said sugarcane farmers are now producing an additional 10 tonnes of sugarcane per hectare. Apart from this, the area of sugarcane production has increased to 8 lakh additional hectares of land in the state.

"In contrast to the previous governments, where sugar mills were closed or sold at throwaway prices, we did not shut any sugar mills and instead re-started the closed sugar mills. Munderwa and Pipraich sugar mills were made functional again. When the world's sugar mills were shut down, UP still had 119 sugar mills operating," he said.

Some of these sugar mills provided sanitisers during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

The chief minister said the maximum green ethanol is being produced in the country by sugarcane farmers and Uttar Pradesh currently is the largest producer of ethanol in the country.

He said 105 of the state's 119 mills pay the sugarcane price within 10 days.