Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday appealed to the farmers protesting against the new farm laws to end their agitation as these legislations are intended to improve their lot unlike what is being propagated by some vested interests.

Attacking the Congress, Left parties and Aam Admi Party, Tomar said no government has done so much for farmers like the NDA governments.

“As the Agriculture Minister of the country, it is my duty is to address the anxiety and confusion of every farmer and expose those who are trying to create a wall of lies between the government and the farmers,” the Minister said in an open letter wrote to the farmers. The letter also indicated that come what may, the Centre was unwilling to scrap the controversial laws.

Stating that he also comes from a family of farmers, Tomar said he understood all the difficulties faced by them. He said as a farmer he also stayed late up in the night to water the crop, ran to the field to seal the weir when it breaks, felt the fear that triggered by untimely rains and experienced the happiness when it rains on time.

He said the country was grateful to the farmers for growing a bumper crop during the difficult times of Covid-19 and propping up the economy. It is a matter of great satisfaction that after the new laws came into force, the government has ensured record procurement on Minimum Support Prices (MSP) in the country. Despite all these, some vested interests are spreading the rumour that the government will stop MSP once these laws are implemented.

‘MSP scheme will continue’

“I want you to recognise the white lies and reject them outright. The government which hiked the MSP to 1.5 times of the cost, doubled their income from farming in the last six years, will not fold up the MSP scheme,” the Minister said.

Tomar also listed all the pro-farmer measures taken by the Narendra Modi government such as neem coating of urea, soil health cards, PM Fasal Bima Yojana, PMKisan scheme which gives ₹6,000 a year to over 10 crore farmers in the country.

His letter said other political parties have been only talking about the reforms that free farmers from the clutches of traders and improve the farmers’ income, whereas this government actually made that happen.

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