File Photo: Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy
A day after the forecast of a below average monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, today, said the government is "fully geared" to deal with any contingency that arises on account of the prediction.
"Met predictions are there... In the passing season, we had a lot of hailstorm and destruction of crops. We just pray that the weather gods are kind to the farmers, but the government is fully geared for any contingency that arises," Mr Rudy said on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.
Asked what the government is doing to improve irrigation facilities for the farms, the Union Minister said: "Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources are working together in a big way to see that irrigation reaches every nook and corner of the country in a big way."
Meanwhile, Congress leader Manish Tewari said, "With the kind of agrarian distress that you are seeing coupled with that the intention of the government to see that even the land of the farmers is snatched away without their consent is very indicative of their total attitude towards the agrarian sector, so the reality is that they are doing nothing at all."
Former Lawmaker Tewari even suggested a few measures to deal with farmers' crisis. "Number of things can be done, first of all they need to increase the MSP (minimum support price), give relief to farmers who have suffered agrarian distress and need to scrap all their ordinances that they have been introducing to amend the Land Acquisition Act."
Congress is opposing amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 on various grounds including the abolition of the provision of securing the consent of 80 per cent of the affected people before the acquisition.