Maximum credit to small farmers for boosting agriculture: President

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, January 31

President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday credited small farmers for the strength of the Indian agricultural sector, hailed the government for its women’s rights push and lauded India’s growth as one of the fastest growing world economies.

The President made a special mention of the draft bill introduced recently to bring the legal marriageable age of women on par with men at 21 and spoke of record GST collections.

In his address to both houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session on Monday, the President noted national resilience in the face of Covid saying record delivery of over 150 crore vaccine doses had made India one of the leading countries with the highest doses administered.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Pralhad Patel, deputy chairman Rajya Sabha Harivansh, BJP chief JP Nadda, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and TMC leader in LS Sudip Bandopadhyay were seated in the front row in the Central Hall of Parliament during the address.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was conspicuous by her absence.

In his nearly 50-minute address, the President said, “I would like to give maximum credit to the small farmers of the country for this consistent success and strengthening the agriculture sector. Interests of the small farmers, who constitute 80 per cent of the farmer community, have always been central to our government.”

He mentioned PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi and direct cash transfer of Rs 1.8 crore to more than 11 crore farmer families as an investment and said over Rs 1 lakh crore had been given as compensation to eight crore farmers since crop insurance scheme changes were introduced.

The government had earlier said that the now-repealed farm laws would hugely benefit small farmers. The President lauded farmers for over 30 crore tonnes of food grains and 33 crore tonnes of horticulture produce in 2020-21 and the government for matching record procurement.

“The government procured 433 lakh metric tonnes of wheat during the rabi season benefiting about 50 lakh farmers. A record quantity of about 900 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured during kharif season, benefiting 1.3 crore farmers,” the President said, adding that agriculture exports had also reached a record level, rising more than 25 per cent in 2020-21 to nearly Rs 3 lakh crore.

Presenting the government’s report card across sectors – potable water delivery to six crore rural households, construction of pucca houses, infrastructure among other things, the President said several major countries faced starvation during Covid, but in India a “sensitive government ensured that nobody remained hungry”.

“The government is providing free ration to each poor household every month under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. This is the world’s largest food distribution programme with an outlay of Rs 2.6 lakh crore reaching out to 80 crore beneficiaries for 19 months. Being fully sensitive to the present circumstances, the government has extended this scheme till March 2022,” the President said.

He termed women’s empowerment one of the top priorities of the government saying, “Treating sons and daughters as equals, my government has also introduced a Bill to increase the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 on par with men.”

The President also hailed criminalisation of triple talaq, end of restrictions on Muslim women who could earlier perform Haj only in male company and 4.5 crore scholarships to minority community students as against 3 crore prior to 2014.

He noted as a matter of happiness that 33 Sainik Schools had started admitting girls and that the first batch of women cadets would enter the National Defence Academy in June 2022.

On economy, the President said India had again emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and GST collection had consistently remained above Rs one lakh crore during the last several months.

“Inflow of 48 billion dollars in the first seven months of the current financial year is a testimony to the belief the global investor community has in India’s growth story,” he said noting that India’s foreign exchange reserves exceed 630 billion dollars, and exports have broken several records.

During April to December 2021, goods exports stood at 300 billion dollars or more than Rs 22 lakh crore, which is one and a half times more than the corresponding period of 2020, the President said, also speaking of India’s growing self reliance in defence and rising diplomatic heft in the world.

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