Ahead of the 2023 assembly polls, the Madhya Pradesh Congress has come out with another set of promises – in the form of five major sops for farmers.
Ex-chief minister and MP Congress Chief Kamal Nath said at a press conference on Wednesday that the Congress government to be formed after four months will bring in a ‘Krishak Nyay Yojana’ (farmers’ justice scheme) to reduce the input cost of agriculture.
This scheme will include free power for agriculture pump up to 5 horsepower to 37 lakh farmers, waiver of the due bills for power used for agriculture purposes, 12 hours of uninterrupted power supply for farmers, withdrawal of unjustified police cases on the farmers who participated in various agitations and continuation of the loan waiver scheme for the farmers.
Nath said that the BJP government in the state has announced a loan interest waiver for the farmers but that is only a partial relief as the actual loan continues and interest continues to accrue. Therefore, the loan waiver scheme, under which loans of 27 lakh farmers were waived in the first phase in 2019-20, would be continued and loans of more farmers would be waived.
Nath said that 70 per cent of the state's economy was based on agriculture and when it becomes weak, it hampers the economic activity, though it does not affect the gross domestic product. If farmers’ income had increased, how did the farmers fall into debt? The amount of loans on each of them has increased. This is a matter of concern, he said.
The ex-chief minister said, therefore, the most important thing was to reduce the input cost of agriculture to ensure an increase in farmers’ income. He said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan came out with lies about doubling farmers’ income in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a recent programme in Rewa, when the parliamentary committee of Modi government at the centre said in December 2022 that Madhya Pradesh is among those four states where farmers’ income had sharply decreased. From Rs 9,740 per month in 2015-16 it had come down to Rs 8,339 (in 2021-22).
He also came down heavily on CM Chouhan for his rampant announcements, saying he should be asked about the implementation of the announcements made in the last five years, let alone the period before that. He said that while the BJP government organized big investors’ summits and announced investment agreements worth Rs 33 lakh crores, not even 5 per cent of those agreements came in.
“Why is there no investment? Investment is an article of faith, it can’t be demanded but has to be attracted. It comes only when people have faith in the state and the government. When I became the CM, I did not do a summit, but a convention in Indore where big industrialists attended. I did not make any announcements; I had decided to build a situation where investors had faith in the state and came themselves to invest,” Nath said.
‘Loan utilization to be probed’
Kamal Nath said that the BJP government has taken huge loans worth Rs 3.30 lakh crores loans, but nothing is known as to what they have done with it. “They only give out big contracts. Everyday foundation stone is laid, this is done just to award the contract and take 25 per cent commission in advance,” Nath said, adding that corruption has no limits in the state and it has been turned into systemic corruption by the BJP government.
On a question later, he said that the utilization of the loans will be probed when the Congress forms government as it was not a loan only on the government, but the burden was on each citizen of the state.
On the question of financial resources for the bevvy of sops being announced by the two parties ahead of elections despite huge loans, Nath said that he makes announcements of schemes only after proper financial research and how they could be implemented. “One has to know how to generate resources. I can tell you the details of how we managed to waive the loans of farmers (in 2019-20) even though officers told me that it was not possible financially. I made the scheduled banks waive 50 per cent of the loans taken from them despite a lot of protests initially,” he said.
When asked about the point that the BJP government seemed to bring in a counter scheme for every promise made by the government and was now reportedly planning to provide domestic gas cylinders for Rs 500 (a poll guarantee of Congress), Nath said that if this was happening, it was good for the people and the credit will go not to BJP, but Congress.
Narmada Seva Sena to be formed
Nath also announced a non-political venture of Congress to constitute a ‘Narmada Seva Sena’ – a brigade of people dedicated to maintaining the purity of water, extensive tree plantation on the banks, assisting conservation measures for the river, gathering information about pollution sources and making efforts to prevent them, providing information regarding illegal sand mining from Narmada to authorities and ensure that action is taken and also to propagate the proper worship methods of Narmada river that is considered among holiest in the country.
Nath said that everyone interested could become a member of the Sena and joked that even CM Chouhan was welcome to join if he assured that the sand mining business on Narmada would close down.
Senior leader Bhupendra Gupta has been made in-charge of the sena while Vikram Mastal Sharma (known for his role as Lord Hanuman in a television serial) will be the convener of the outfit.