Nothing for us in Budget, Rues Farmers Body

Nagpur, Feb 28 (IANS) Farmers leaders here Saturday criticized the Union budget saying Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has "failed to give the much-needed healing touch" to the agriculture fraternity.

"There is no announcement to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pre-poll promise of farm loan waivers and giving minimum support prices as per a proposed formula of investment plus 50 percent returns...," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari said.

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana President and MP Raju Shetti flayed the budget saying it had nothing for the farmers whose high hopes have been dashed.

"Where are the promised 'achhe din' for the farm community... this budget is very disappointing," Shetti said.

Tiwari reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party's pre-election promises are turning out to be 'kisan-jumlas' (empty poll promises) as there is no budgetary provision or plans to address the acute agrarian crisis with focus on credits, cost and crop pricing issues or measures to stop farmers suicides.

"More so since this year, Maharashtra has officially declared that 23,811 of 39,453, or 60 percent villages in the state, face the severest drought of the century, hitting more than 90 lakh farmers... The ruling NDA has sidelined the rural and agrarian crisis from its priority list, worsening the already bad conditions," Tiwari said.

With 1,160 farmers suicides last year and 124 till date this year, he urged the centre to view the Vidarbha (eastern Maharashtra) agrarian crisis seriously and announce a special plan to mitigate the despair of the farmlands in the region.