Better work done in 10 years, will take it forward: Agri minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan

“The government is not new, this is continuity. Better work has been done in the last 10 years and in our Sankalp Patra (BJP’s manifesto), we have prepared our road map for farmer welfare and rural development. We will take these works forward,” Chouhan said.

“The Prime Minister’s priority, the government’s priority is farmer welfare and that is why today he [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] signed the first file for releasing Kisan Samman Nidhi,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs his first Cabinet meeting at the start of his third term in New Delhi, Monday. (ANI)

“The decision taken by the Cabinet today to build 3 crore more houses for the poor, this work is already going on, we will take it forward. Because it is not that if a new minister comes… he will do something new. There is continuity in work, this continuity will continue,” he said.

Among other things, the BJP had announced in its manifesto that it will continue to increase the MSP from time to time. This is the first time since 2004 that MSP figured in the party’s Lok Sabha poll manifesto.

In the chapter — Modi ki Guarantee for Kisan Samman — the party manifesto noted, “We have ensured unprecedented increase in MSP for major crops, and we will continue to increase MSP from time to time.”

The promise is significant in view of the recent protests by several farmer unions demanding legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price.

On PM-Kisan, the BJP manifesto states, “We are committed to sustained financial support for our farmers.” The party has also promised to launch “an indigenous Bharat Krishi satellite for farm-related activities like crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil health, and weather forecasting, among others”.

Sources say Chouhan’s immediate priorities will be to roll out the first 100 days agenda for both ministries. One of the proposed initiatives of the Agriculture Ministry’s for the first 100 days is establishment of a National Council for Agriculture and Rural Transformation (NCART), which will act as an overarching federal body for devising policy and programmes for the agri sector, it is learnt. In the Rural Development Ministry, the focus will be on sanctioning of the two crore PMAY-Gramin houses approved in the first meeting of the Narendra Modi Cabinet 3.0.

In the agriculture ministry, Chouhan will have two deputies — Bhagirath Choudhary and Ram Nath Thakur — while in the Rural Development Ministry, Kamlesh Paswan and Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani will be the two Ministers of State.