Rahul demands farmer budget from next session

KANPUR: Stressing on the extant of farm distress and the urgent need for government intervention, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that the country's agriculture sector needed a separate farmer budget, identifying specifically, what the government plans to do, to help the farm sector grow.
Addressing the Khaat Sabha at Ghatampur in Kanpur, Rahul said, "They are merging the rail and the general budget.Modi ji should bring a separate farmer budget, in which he should specify what the government will do for farmers." Adding that the farm sector was in the need of urgent attention and assistance, Rahul added, "This will allow farmers to know specific details of what schemes are aimed at them, and how much money each has been allotted. I will raise this issue in Parliament myself, and also demand that you be given a fair price for your produce."
Rahul's suggestion for farm budget also elicted a response from Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. At a press conference in Delhi, Jaitley questioned the UPA government for not having started a farm budget, if they were so concerned about farmer welfare.
On Wednesday, Rahul also accused the Centre of waiving off loans of industrialists but not of farmers. "Had the government given the money it has to the industrialists, lakhs of children from farmer families could have had access to funds for education. many would have been engineers, doctors and lawyers today," he said.
Bhagwat Gita and Upanishads teach us to fight for truth, but our Prime Minister lies whenever he speaks, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday while accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of spreading hatred in the society.
"He spreads hatred, mixes poison in the society and makes countrymen fight each other," said Rahul while addressing farmers in his khat sabha at Captain Sukhwasi Singh Memorial Postgraduate College in Ghatampur area of Kanpur district.
Modi had promised to give jobs to two crore people, but till date only one lakh people have been jobs by the NDA government, he added.
Pitching strongly for the farmers on the 14th day of his 2,500 km-long Kisan Yatra, Rahul said the Modi government has waived off loan of only 12 big industrialists and rich people. "Narendra Modi has waived off loans of Rs 1.10 lakh crore of big industrialists and rich people but not of poor farmers," he claimed.
"Had the money been spent on the education of children of farmers, they could have become doctors, engineers and lawyers in future," Rahul added.
Buoyed by the huge crowd, Rahul said that farmers are standing with Congress party because UPA had waived of Rs 70,000 crore debt of the farmers. "We will put pressure on Modi to do the same in the interest of farmers. When our Prime Minister remains 'mast' in touring America and China, poor farmers are 'trast' (fed up) with the burden of loan. That is why we started the yatra," he said.
He said that Congress is not in power and it can't help farmers directly, but the party will continue to highlight their plight through agitation.
Attacking BSP supremo Mayawati, Rahul said, "You people had elected 'elephant' (symbol of BSP) and made Mayawati sit on it. But it had gulped everything, including the ideologies of Kanshiram, who established the party," he said.
Questioned on his statement that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is a 'good boy', Rahul said he had good rapport with politicians of many parties and "no meaning should be drawn from his comment". Talking about the aim of Kisan Yatra, Rahul said it is being taken out to create pressure on Modi, NDA and BJP to waived off farmers' loans. "I promised you (farmers) that if Congress government returns to power in UP, your loans would be waived off within 10 days of the formation of the government," he said.
"If the Congress forms government in Uttar Pradesh, it will order probe on works done by the SP and BSP," he said.