Congress exposes Yogi Adityanath government’s lies on potato crisis

The Congress has exposed the lies of the BJP Government in Uttar Pradesh when the latter claimed that it has provided all help to potato growers and was the first state to declare Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the farmers.

In a systematic campaign, the Congress has unraveled as to how the farmers feel cheated by the Government which had claimed that it will purchase 1 lakh metric tonnes of potato from the farmers by setting up purchase centres in their respective villages.

“A visit to the potato belt of Uttar Pradesh is an eye opener. The growers are not getting the cost price. They are suffering but the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sitting in Lucknow claims that all is well with the farmers,” Ajay Kumar Lallu, Leader, Congress Legislature Party in Vidhan Sabha, told this reporter.

The Congress leader visited the potato belt for three days where he met the growers, cold storage owners and consumers. He went to Etah, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Etawah and Mainpuri. “The visit was an eye opener. I can only one thing that this government is turning the potato belt into another Bundelkhand where farmers are dying of hunger,” he said.

In April, after one of the state Cabinet meetings, the government spokesman announced a MSP of Rs 487 per quintal for potato. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath then declared that Government would purchase a minimum of 1 lakh meteric tones of potatoes. He also said that purchase centres would be set up in all the gram sabhas so that farmers could sell their potatoes easily.

BJP leaders harped on these announcements as an achievement of the government. Time and again party spokesman and ministers claimed it to be a krantikari (revolutionary) decision. Everytime they put halo on the head of Yogi Adityanath saying “this has never happened before.”

But the ground reality was different. Ajay Kumar Lallu found following in his investigation:

• No purchase centres were set up in the villages. Some government officials came saying potatoes will be purchased at `competitive’ prices, but this too never happened.
• The assured MSP of Rs 487 crore was never paid to the farmers.
• The government missed the target to purchase 1 lakh metric tonnes of potato by a long margin as Congress delegation found out that just 12,967 metric tonnes of potato was purchased.
• Though in the government announcement, the spokesman did not elaborate about the size and shape of potatoes but officials preferred to purchase potatoes of a particular size.
• The survey shows that only 5 per cent of the produce was found up to the mark as per government specification.
• As farmers failed to get cost price and charges of cold storages were more then what they expected to get after selling their produce, farmers did not take potatoes from cold storage.
• Cold storage owners then threw potatoes out on the road dealing a double blow to the farmers.