Mumbai: Chairman of the Maharashtra Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Pasha Patel, Thursday blamed the “faulty” policies of the erstwhile Congress-led government in the state for the rise in suicide of farmers over the last five years. Patel, once a close aide of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, had been appointed as the chief of the CACP in July 2017. “Earlier, the agriculture export from India used to be some 30 million USD.
But after the BJP government came to power in 2014, it has gone up to 100 million USD,” he told reporters here. Replying to a query over the rise in farmers’ suicide in Maharashtra, he said, “Farmers’ suicides have increased in the last five years due to the faulty policies of the Congress…But the condition of farmers will improve from now on.”
Patel added that the food habits of Indians have been changed for commercial interests. “For instance, the use of palm oil in our kitchen has increased, mainly due to the commercial interests involved and not because of its nutritional value,” he said.