Bhopal: Over rotting onion and now on its sky rocketing price, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has justified his stand on purchasing it at Rs 8/kg. Addressing farmers “Dil Se” through radio on Sunday, Chouhan said that he had anticipated the loss before taking the decision as state lacks proper storage. Moreover, onions cannot be stored for longer periods, CM said, adding that despite all these things government had purchased the onions so that farmers should not bear more loss.
He said, “Even onions get rotten in houses. We are introducing storage scheme for farmers in which they can have godowns of capacity 50MT. Grant upto Rs 1.75 lakh will also be given.” CM said, “Government preferred to dump onion after purchasing before farmers would do the same after bearing the loss due to bumper production. Similar, decision has been taken for purchasing of pulses in farmers’ interest.”
Chauhan said, “government is planning to launch Krishi Udhyam Yojana for farmers’ children. Only farmers’ children will be given financial assistance to run their business.” He said that he understands farmers’ problems at personal level. All efforts are being made to redress them, CM added.
Citing examples on how farmers produced bumper onion, CM said, “Famers should use less seeds.” He also explained Rizzo Ferro technique to farmers. Government is also introducing scheme to ensure benefit to farmers on farming cost. Commission is being constituted.” He said that farmers would be provided copies of Khasra free of cost once in a year. Electricity bill is being charged at fixed rate, he said, adding that government is introducing scheme for finance to defaulters farmers. He further said, “All the undisputed matters of revenue department would be settled down within three months. And if matter is not settled down within given time frame, farmers would be awarded and this award amount would be recovered from salaries of the concerning officials.”
