Patna, Feb 18 (IANS) A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took on Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Sudhakar Singh over his knowledge of developmental work being carried out in the state, the former agriculture minister on Saturday retaliated sharply by raising five points on the farmers’ issues.
Despite the income of Bihar farmers being the lowest in the country, Nitish Kumar claimed that a number of work has been done for them.
“I learnt from your statement that my knowledge is zero. Whenever logical questions are asked to you related to the policies of your government, you have only one answer that the inquirer does not have knowledge of anything. I cannot compete with you as you are a learned man, but I want to put some points in your perspective,” Singh said.
“Your government has proposed to increase the income of farmers through second and third agriculture road maps. What happened to those policies,” Singh asked.
On March 24, 2022, the Central parliamentary committee submitted a report where the farmers of Meghalaya are the highest earners of the country and their individual income is Rs 29,348 per month. The farmers of Punjab are earning Rs 26,701 per month and the earning of a Bihar farmer is Rs 7,542 per month,” Singh said.
“The farmers of Bihar produce paddy in October and the PACS used to purchase the paddy in December. Is there any clarification of it,” Singh asked.
“The farmers of Punjab are selling paddy at the rate of Rs 2,300 per quintal while the farmers of Bihar are selling their paddy at Rs 1,600 per quintal,” he said.
“The contribution of agriculture to the GDP of Bihar is 18 to 19 per cent but the growth rate is decreasing. In the period from 2005 to 2010, the growth rate was 5.4 per cent. During the period of 2010 to 2015, the growth rate was 3.7 per cent while the growth rate from 2015 to 2020 was 1.2 per cent. Interestingly, the second road map was introduced in the state in 2012,” he said.
“The state government has acquired land of farmers for many government projects but not given the compensations as per the circle rate. The farmers of Buxar are the prime example of it. Instead of giving adequate compensation, the district police beat them,” Singh said.
–IANS
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