New Delhi: The government is hopeful that talks scheduled with farmers on Sunday will ‘move towards resolving the issue', said Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur in New Delhi.
He referred to the talks between the Centre and farmers that ended in the wee hours on Friday saying “very meaningful discussions took place”.
Anurag Thakur said, “The government had invited farmer organisations for talks. Many farmer leaders came and very meaningful discussions took place”.
We have scheduled the next round of talks for Sunday, said Thakur, adding “I am confident that there will be a good atmosphere on Sunday also and will move towards resolving the issue.”
Responding to the work done by the Centre, Thakur said, “No government has done more for farmers than what Modi government has done in the past 10 years.” He listed fertiliser, water, procurement of crops at MSP, cheap loans from banks and compensation as the achievements.
In 2013-14 when the UPA government was in power, the agriculture budget was Rs 27,662 crore. At present, the agriculture budget of the Modi government is more than Rs 1,25,000 crore. That is five times more agriculture budget than in the UPA period.
During the UPA regime, there was no Kisan Samman Nidhi. The Modi government has transferred Rs 2,81,000 crore directly to the bank accounts of more than 11 crore farmers through Kisan Samman Nidhi.
Under the crop insurance scheme of the UPA period, farmers did not get anything. Farmers have received compensation of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore under the Modi government.
