BJD MP Prasanna Acharya slams Centre for not doubling income of farmers

New Delhi: BJD MP Prasanna Acharya on Friday flayed the Centre for not meeting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 as promised.

He was participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha.

The BDD Member also expressed concern over cases of farmer suicides. “Farmers income has not doubled. The government had promised that by 2022, their income will be doubled…” “Can the government say that by now, it has been able to double the income? No, the farmers’ income has not been doubled,” he said.

He also asked why are the farmers dying by suicides every day if their incomes have doubled. Quoting the data of the National Crime Record Bureau, he said that 42,480 farmers and daily wage workers ended their lives in 2019, up six per cent from the previous year.”

Every year the number of farmers’ suicides is going up. Why? he sought to know.

Batting for granting of special status to Odisha, he said that it was a long pending demand of his state.

He also said that the recent union government’s order to recall any IAS and IPS officer at any time from the states which does not require state’s permission, is harmful to the federalism of the country.

However, the BJD MP also appreciated the government’s nationalistic approach and said that many people believe that had Netaji been alive after independence, the country would have been shaped differently.

He noted that the government has rightly taken the decision to kickstart the Republic Day celebrations from Netaji’s birthday.

While participating in the motion of thanks, CPI(M)Member K Somaprasad alleged that the Government used pandemic to implement its ‘anti-people policies’, and also asked how one can forget the floating corpses.

He alleged that the government has failed to handle the pandemic. He also said that the government has not provided any security, incentives and insurances to frontline workers. He also brought the issue of unemployment to the notice of the House and said that disinvestment of Public Sector Units(PSUs) will not create new jobs.

“There are about 12.3 lakh vacancies in government jobs while 70 per cent of STs and 50 per cent of SCs are landless, land reforms are the need of the hour,” Somaprasad said.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, joining the debate said that strong nations are not built by insecure leadership.

Speaking further she said that Aatmanirbhar Bharat was just a garb and pointed out that there is a new record of imports from China. She also said that the government is silent with respect to women’s safety.

“State governments are not getting their GST dues”, she said, adding that the government has been using its resources to spy on its people instead of spending them on national security.

She noted that many countries, including Israel, have started a probe on the use of Pegasus and asked why the Parliament is not discussing the issue.

TDP lawmaker Ravindra Kumar said that Andhra Pradesh is on the verge of collapse and the state government is solely borrowing and the accounts are not being maintained.

He also said that employees are not being paid on time while the accidents due to poor roads are a daily occurrence in the state.

(IANS)