Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led government might have announced a Minimum Support Price (MSP) to help out the about 25 lakh farmers of the state, but it does not seem to be good enough. On Saturday morning, the state capital woke up to see thousands of tonnes of potatoes strewn on city roads.
Disgruntled farmers brought tonnes of potatoes loaded in tractor-trolleys, trucks and dumped them on roads, right in front of the CM House and UP State Assembly.
After a record production of 155-160 lakh metric tonne potatoes in Uttar Pradesh during 2016-17, the state government after its cabinet meeting in April last year, had decided to buy the produce at a rate of Rs 487 per quintal. The procurement, of nearly one lakh metric tonne potatoes, was to start immediately.
CM Yogi Adityanath had also reached out to the central government and asked Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh to ask other states to procure potato from UP. Adityanath also wanted potato crop from the state to get prominence for procurement in the Centre’s E-National Agricultural Mart.
Speaking to News18, farmer leader, Harnam Singh said, “The government might have announced a basic MSP but the procurement is next to nil. Also, the support price of Rs 487 per quintal is not enough. They have not taken into account the money paid by farmers to store their produce in the cold storages. In such a situation farmers are forced to dump their produce on roads.”
Singh added that the government was only interested in handing out figures about their help to farmers. “Figures don’t help or provide any relief to farmers. Farmers sit on dharna in this cold weather and no one cares. If the government does not wake up now, it will face consequences,” he said.
BJP Spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi responded to the claims and said, “UP was one of the first states to announce a minimum support price for potato. But yes, I admit that it might not be enough. We are working towards addressing this issue.”
Meanwhile, SSP Lucknow Deepak Kumar has said that strict action will be taken against those who littered with streets with potatoes. “The police have identified the people and the vehicles they used to do this,” he said.
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