Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday asked the Congress that where the well-wishers of farmers were during 2012-17 when they faced starvation.
The Chief Minister posed the query shortly after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a blistering attack on the UP government over alleged unpaid dues to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore to sugarcane farmers.
“When our government was formed, the pending cane dues were around Rs 57,800 crore. The amount was bigger than the budgets of many states. But we paid it,” asserted Adityanath.
“In the previous regimes of the SP and BSP, nothing was done for the sugarcane farmers, (and) as a result, they died of starvation (bhukhmari),” he added.
The UP Chief Minister struck back and asked, “Where were the so-called well-wishers of the farmers from 2012 to 2017, when the farmers were on the brink of starvation. Why have they woken up from their slumber now?”
Seeking to put the records straight, he said, “The sugarcane cultivation area in the state has increased by 22 per cent to 28 lakh hectare, and a number of closed sugar mills have been restarted. The farmers are happy (khushaal) now.”
