PM Narendra Modi cites Swaminathan panel report as he hails farm laws, attacks Opposition over loan waiver promise

Photo courtesy: Twitter

BHOPAL: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (December 18) addressed farmers' conferences in Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing. During his address, the Prime Minister hailed the farm laws and said that Rs 35 lakh crore has so far been transferred into the bank accounts of 35 lakh farmers of Madhya Pradesh, who suffered losses due to natural calamities. 

Here are some of the key pointers from his speech: 

• Today Rs 16,000 crores are being transferred into the bank accounts of 35 lakh farmers of Madhya Pradesh. 
  
• Today, several farmers have been given Kisan Credit Card. Earlier, they were not available to all farmers. But we changed rules to make Kisan Credit Card available to all farmers across the country. 
  
• Farm laws have not been introduced overnight. Over last 20-30 years, central govt and state govts had detailed discussions on these reforms. Agriculture experts, economists and progressive farmers have been demanding reforms.
  
• This modern system that India has created in the last 5-6 years is discussed in the whole world today.
  
• It is true that no matter how much hard effort the farmers put in, if there is no proper storage of fruit-vegetables-grains, they end up suffering a huge loss. I would like to urge the traders and industrialists of the country to increase their investment and up their contribution in providing modern storage systems, cold storage, in setting up new food processing ventures. It would mean serving the farmers in a true sense.
  
• Modern facilities, which are available to farmers in developed nations, should be provided to the farmers of India also. It cannot be delayed any longer. In a rapidly changing global scenario, the situation in India cannot be accepted as farmers become helpless due to lack of facilities and modern methods. It is already too late. The work that should have been done 25-30 years ago is happening now. 
  
• The Swaminathan Committee report is proof of how ruthless those people are, who are talking about farmers today. These people suppressed Swaminathan Committee recommendations for eight years. 
  
• In the PM-Kisan scheme launched by our government, farmers will get about 75,000 crore rupees annually, which comes to about 7.5 lakh crores in 10 years. The amount will be directly transferred to farmers' bank account. No commission will be given to anyone. 
  
• Speaking of urea, farmers had to stand in queues for urea overnight some 7-8 years ago. Several places reported incidents of lathicharge on farmers for urea. Urea was fiercely blackmarketed at that time. Today, the scenario has changed and farmers no longer face a shortage of urea. They don't get lathicharged. Our government stopped black-marketing of urea, took tough measures and cracked down on corruption. We made sure that urea goes to the farmer's farm.
  
• Our government is equally promoting beekeeping, animal husbandry and fisheries along with grain-producing farmers.
  
• Our government is running the Blue Revolution Scheme to promote fisheries. Some time back, Prime Minister Matsya Sampada Yojana was also started in this direction. The result of these efforts is that fish production set a new record in the country.
  
• I request all political parties with folded hands, please keep all the credit. I'm giving credit to all your old election manifestos. I just want ease in the life of farmers, I want their progress and modernity in agriculture.
  
• If we had to remove the MSP, then why would we implement the Swaminathan Committee report? Our government is serious about MSPs and therefore, every time announce the MSP before the sowing process starts. This also makes it easier for farmers as they get to know it at the initial level. 
  
• It has been more than six months since these laws were enacted. Even after enactment of the law, the MSP was announced as it was done before. During the coronavirus epidemic, this pattern was followed as before. Purchase on MSP was also done in the same mandis which used to be in the past.