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The Congress on Monday said that it will give notice for a privilege motion against the Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Rajya Sabha for "misleading the House" on various counts.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress MPs Randeep Singh Surjewala and Digvijaya Singh alleged that Chouhan misled the House "by telling lies". Surjewala, a Congress general secretary, said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been claiming to provide farmers with minimum support price (MSP) on input costs plus fifty per cent, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on February 6, 2015, the BJP government had said that it was not possible. He asked what is the actual truth. Surjewala also challenged the that the claim that farmers were getting prices over and above the MSP on various crops. Digvijaya Singh disputed claims that when he left office as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in 2003, only 7 lakh hectares of land in the state was irrigated. He said 33 lakh hectares of land in the state was irrigated in 1997-98. He also disputed the claims that the Congress government had not provided any debt waiver to the farmers. He said that debt of 37 lakh farmers had been waived off when Kamal Nath was the Chief Minister. Earlier in the day, the Union Minister for Agriculture slammed the opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha for not "prioritising the farmers". "We were discussing Kisan Samman Nidhi. Congress talked about direct assistance to farmers but Congress never made a scheme like Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this scheme. They (opposition) will not understand but the amount of Rs 6000 matters for small farmers. Due to this Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers have become self-reliant, farmers have also become empowered and the respect of farmers has also increased. They (opposition) cannot see the respect of farmers," Chouhan said. (ANI)
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