India News | MP: Digvijaya Demands Adequate Price for Garlic Farmers

Bhopal, Aug 23 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday wrote to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan demanding that the state government ensure that farmers get adequate price for garlic.

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Farmers in Ratlam, Mandsaur, Neemuch and Indore districts are forced to sell their garlic crop at Rs 1 per kg in the mandis (wholesale markets) and the government is not doing anything for them, the Rajya Sabha member claimed.

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On August 8, a quintal of garlic fetched only Rs 51 in Malwa's Pipliya Mandi, he said.

“Earlier, onions were purchased at a throw-away rate (by the traders)....Protesting against low prices of garlic and onions, the farmers had also take out their funeral procession. In your own Sehore district, the farmers were crying and were forced to throw away hundreds of quintals of garlic in the Parvati river,” Singh said in the letter.

Chief Minister Chouhan had not taken any effective steps for the welfare of farmers since 2005 when he became chief minister for the first time and even the `Bhavantar scheme' for ensuring they get adequate returns for their crops was not effective, he alleged.

Chouhan had promised minimum support prices for vegetables last year but the scheme was yet to materialize, Singh said.

In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that by 2022 the income of farmers will be doubled, but "unfortunately this promise was also proved to be a “jumla” (hollow rhetoric)," the Congress leader said.

Chouhan should hold talks with garlic and onion farmers and take steps for providing them adequate price for their crop, he demanded.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)