Major reprieve to Punjab farmers
Author: BI Bureau
Chandigarh: Reiterating commitment to make agriculture a profitable venture, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has announced to slash fees for load enhancement on tube wells from existing Rs 4750 to Rs 2500. “This is a humble gift to food growers of our state by their own government,” said the Chief Minister in a statement.The Chief Minister said that Punjab was predominantly an agrarian economy with a large section of its population dependent on farming. However, he bemoaned that today a farmer doesn't want his son to do agriculture because of diminishing returns. Mann said that this trend needs to be reversed for which input cost of the farmers has to be decreased so that farming becomes a profitable venture.
The Chief Minister said that farmers faced a lot of difficulty in paying the load enhancement fees on tube wells due to which they have slashed it by nearly 50 per cent. He expressed hope that it will give much needed succour to the hard working and resilient farmers of the state who have made the country self reliant in food production by contributing immensely in national food kitty.
The Chief Minister said that his government has already introduced Minimum support price (MSP) for Moongi. Likewise he said that the direct sowing of paddy campaigns has also got affirmative response from farmers. Bhagwant Mann said that these decisions will help in supplementing income of farmers on one hand and enhancing the soil health and saving precious water of the state on the other. /BI/
