Karnataka govt showing indifference to farm distress, says Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday charged the Congress government in the state with being ‘indifferent’ to farmers’ distress, and not effectively implementing the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance scheme).

He was addressing BJP’s Kishan Morcha workers on his app.

Modi said the NDA government, in its holistic approach to agriculture (‘beej se bazaar tak’), was working towards strengthening the sector.

He asked Kisan Morcha volunteers to reach out to farmers and tell them that the BJP if voted to power, would be sensitive to their problems. “The Congress only shows lip sympathy to farmers. They only speak about them (farmers) in their speeches.”

The prime minister said his government had increased the minimum support price for farm produces one-and-a-half times the cost of production.

Responding to a query by a Kisan Morcha functionary, Modi said ‘karyakartas’ (workers) should tell farmers with confidence that their income would be doubled by 2022.

He said besides giving a fresh impetus to agriculture and dairy farming, the government was working on bringing in development in the field of fish farming, beekeeping, solar and organic farming to help raise the farm income.

Modi is expected to interact with Mahila Morcha, SC/ST Morcha and Yuva Morcha activists of Karnataka via his app over the next few days.