A day after two Farm Bills were passed by the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated on Monday that the mechanism of minimum support price (MSP) will continue.
“The Government will continue to purchase farm produce, the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism will continue and the ‘Krishi mandi’ (agriculture markets) will continue to work as it has been working,” said Modi, while trying to allay apprehensions of farmers who are up in arms ever since the contentious farm bills have been passed by the Parliament.
Modi was addressing a virtual rally here wherein he laid foundation stones for highway projects in Bihar worth Rs 14,258 crore. The Prime Minister also inaugurated the optical fibre internet services through which 45,945 villages in the State will be connected. “The digital revolution in rural Bihar will help the State grow by leaps and bounds,” said PM while inaugurating the optical fibre network.
The Centre’s sops have been doled out just ahead of Assembly elections in the State, slated for October-November this year.
“Na MSP bandh hoga, na krishi mandi. (Neither MSP will be discontinued, nor agriculture markets will be shut). But there are sections of people who have been spreading canards about the farm bills. These bills were the need of the 21st century. Farmers remained in shackles for long leading to middlemen benefiting from their (farmers) compulsions. But no more so. My Government has brought in the biggest farm reforms which, in turn, will help farmers prosper,” said Modi.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has been doling out one sop after another every week for the poll-bound Bihar where the BJP is ruling the State in alliance with the JD(U) since July 2017. The NDA has projected Nitish Kumar as its chief ministerial candidate and the Prime Minister, in his every virtual meet, showers encomiums on the JD(U) strongman with whom he had a running feud from 2013 to 2017.
Besides Nitish, his deputy and senior BJP leader Sushil Modi also attended today’s function through video conferencing.
This was Modi’s fifth virtual rally for poll-bound Bihar in the last one month. The PM is likely to be the BJP’s star campaigner once the Election Commission notifies poll schedule in the next few days.