Governor lists efforts to double farmers’ income

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 5

Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya today said the state government was vigorously pursuing the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal matter in the Supreme Court and listed steps taken by Manohar Lal Khattar government for doubling farmers’ income.

Obituary references

• On the first day of the Budget session, obituary references were passed to pay tributes to those prominent personalities who have expired between the period from the end of the previous session and the beginning of the current session.
• The CM read out the obituary references. Those who were paid homage include ex-Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Chandrawati, former state minister Om Parkash Jain, ex-MP Ramji Lal, ex-MLAs Balbir Singh, Swami Bhagwan Dev Paramhans and Darshan Lal Jain.

Ambedkar statue unveiled in House

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday unveiled a 7-foot-high statue of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar on the premises of the Vidhan Sabha. Speaker Gian Chand Gupta and Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa were present. All leaders and the CM raised the slogans of ‘Baba Saheb Ambedkar Amar Rahe’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

The Governor also lauded the state government for effective tackling of Covid and becoming the first state to implement Atam Nirbhar Bharat — a ration token scheme for economically distressed people because of Covid.

Delivering his address on the opening day of the Budget session of the state Assembly, Arya said the state government was working on a vision to make agriculture profitable.

He said the state government had taken several decisive steps towards doubling farmers’ income, including procurement of nine crops from the state budget at MSP, top-up subsidy under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, micro irrigation and highest claim to premium ratio (greater than 1) under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Arya said Haryana gave the highest price of Rs 350 per quintal for sugarcane and had procured sugarcane amounting to Rs 1,263.74 crore in 2019-20.

He said the government had procured 56.07 lakh metric tonne paddy, 7.36 lakh metric tonne bajra, 650 metric tonne peanut, 1,099 metric tonne moong and 4,016 metric tonne maize at MSP in the kharif 2020 season. He said Rs 17,000 crore has been directly transferred into the bank accounts of 9.5 lakh farmers.

The Governor said in a bid to ensure that Haryana got its legitimate share of water, the state government was vigorously pursuing the SYL matter in the Supreme Court and the court had given its verdict in favour of Haryana.

He said Haryana had strongly registered its demand for early completion of the canal with the Ministry of Water Resources in the tripartite meeting of Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers with the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, convened as per the mandate of the Supreme Court.

Lauding the efforts of the state government for efficiently tackling Covid, he said like every other state, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha was meeting in the shadow of a pandemic that had changed the world in myriad ways. He said the government had taken various initiatives to effectively control spread of this pandemic.

Arya said under Operation Samvedna, the government had sent 4,44,422 migrant workers to their home states through 100 special trains and 6,629 buses, incurring an expenditure of Rs 8.21 crore.

He said Haryana was the first state to implement Atam Nirbhar Bharat, a scheme to help those under economic distress because of Covid who were not covered under any PDS scheme. He said persons who had no ration card were provided 5 kg wheat per person and 1 Kg dal per family per month during May and June 2020.

The Governor mentioned the recently enacted law to provide 75 per cent jobs in private industry to local youth, entrepreneurship and employment policy of 2020, Mera Pani Meri Virasat, a scheme aimed at crop diversification, and other welfare schemes being implemented by the government.