Third round of talks with farmers’ bodies meaningful: Anurag Thakur

NEW DELHI — Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth & Sports Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur, said on Friday that the third round of talks with the farmers’ organisations was meaningful.

“We will sit together again on Sunday.” Thakur said.

“The government had invited farmers’ organisations for talks. Many farmer leaders came and very meaningful discussions took place. We together have scheduled the next talks for Sunday. I am confident that there will be a good atmosphere on Sunday as well. There will be talks and we will move towards resolving the issues,” the minister told reporters here.

Commenting on the work done by the Centre, Thakur said, “No government has done more than what the Modi government has done in the last 10 years on fertiliser, water, procurement at MSP, cheap loans from banks and compensation.

“In 2013-14, when the UPA government was in power, the agriculture budget was INR 27,662 crore. Now the agriculture budget of the Modi government is more than INR 1,25,000 crore, which is five times more than the agriculture budget of the UPA period.

“At that time there was no Kisan Samman Nidhi. We have transferred INR 2,81,000 crore directly to the bank accounts of more than 11 crore farmers through Kisan Samman Nidhi.”

The minister added, “The farmers got nothing under the crop insurance scheme of the UPA period. They have received compensation of more than INR 1.5 lakh crore under the Modi government. Out of 10,000 FPOs, 8,000 have been formed and lakhs of farmers have also joined them.”

On MSP, Thakur said, “During the time of the Congress-led government, the total purchase of wheat, paddy, pulses and oilseeds was INR 5,50,000 crore. The Modi government made a purchase of INR 18,39,000 crore, which is almost three-and-a-half times more. This shows that we increased the prices and also made purchases more than double.”

Further sharing information about the work done by the Modi government in the interest of farmers, the Union minister said, “The Modi government spent one-and-a-half times more, i.e., about INR 15 thousand 500 crore, for irrigation schemes.

“During the time of Congress, agricultural loans were only INR 7 lakh crore, which we have increased to INR 20 lakh crore. And this is only the figure of last year. At that time, the export was worth INR 2,62,000 crore, while under our regime, export has been scaled up to INR 4,27,000 crore.

“Similarly, if you compare our performance in any other area, Congress will look completely pale in comparison.”