Gujarat govt refutes allegations of Congress over cotton MSP

Gandhinagar

Gujarat government today refuted all allegations made by Congress in its memorandum given to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel regarding the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) of cotton, and termed it as “baseless”.

The Gujarat government also claimed that the Opposition Congress has been “shaken” by BJP’s “pro-farmer policies”.

Hours after Congress MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela presented a memorandum to the chief minister, demanding an increase in the MSP of cotton, the state government issued a statement, claiming that Congress is merely shedding “crocodile tears” on the farmers’ issue.

Gujarat state health minister and state government spokesperson Nitin Patel claimed that when the Congress was in power in Gujarat, it used to suppress farmers’ protests by all means and also ordered the police to open fire at agitating farmers, the statement said.

“The Congress is shaken, because six crore citizens of Gujarat, along with farmers, elected the BJP for a better government, which cares for farmers. Congress’ allegations are politically motivated,” Patel said in the release.

He claimed in the release that being a farmer’s daugther, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel declared the current year as ‘Krishi Vikas Varsh’ and introduced several schemes for the benefit of farmers and cattle rearers.

“Through some special provisions in the recent budget, we gave away crores of rupees through many of our pro-farmer programmes, such as construction of godowns in farms and assistance of Rs 35,000 for purchasing tractors. We also distributed assistance worth Rs 700 crore through Krishi Mahotsavas,” Patel said in the release

Third and fourth unit construction cost was estimated at Rs 3,033 crore, according to an official spokesman.

© Copyright PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of any PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.