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| PM ignored Jammu farmers, alleges BJP | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 10: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Centre of ignoring the farmers of Jammu province, saying the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Jammu and Kashmir has disappointed farmers particularly Basmati growers here.
"Farmers of Jammu region, who have been subjected to repeated discrimination by the successive governments in the state, had high hopes on two-day visit of the Prime Minister, but they were once again discriminated when the PM announced package only for the saffron growers in Kashmir Valley," BJP MLAs Ch. Sukhnandan, Shyam Choudhary and Prof Gharu Ram told reporters in a joint press conference here at party headquarters here.
The legislators regretted, "It is very unfortunate that despite repeated requests and representations, neither the State nor the Central government has paid any heed or taken effective steps towards growers of the world famous Basmati rice, which is only grown in Jammu province."
"Had this variety of rice been produced in the valley, every one in the government would have been working day and night to ensure that it gets international market and the valley farmers get good returns," they charged.
The BJP MLAs said that an annual production of Basmati in Jammu region is to the tune of 86,000 tonnes and it is grown on 32,000 hectares of land in Jammu province. "This is the only area in the world which produces Basmati rice with a special aroma, unlike the Basmati rice produced in other parts of the globe," they claimed.
All the three MLAs, who were part of the 10-member delegation of the party, which had called on the Prime Minister on June 7 at Srinagar, also raised the issue with him and claimed that the PM too was annoyed to hear such an approach of the state government towards the production and promotion of Basmati rice.
They informed that they had apprised the PM that the Basmati and other varieties of rice have not been procured by the government agencies as a result of which the farmers have been facing losses of their crops.
The delegation had also apprised the PM about the problems being faced by the Basmati growers on account of non-availability of seeds and fertilizers, besides lack of irrigation facilities. They also brought to the notice of the PM about discrimination between two Agriculture Universities in Jammu and Srinagar by citing example that SKUAST in Kashmir has five facilities of Agriculture, Veteri-nary, Sericulture, Fisheries and Horticulture, while there are only two faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary in SKUAST of Jammu.
They pleaded for removal of this discrimination between the two agriculture universities in the interest of the people of the state.
They demanded a comprehensive policy to be framed for the promotion of Basmati rice and immediate steps for its procurement by the government.
The policy should also include the safeguards for the growers of the variety.
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