Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala
The Congress on Friday accused the government in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh of fudging agriculture production figures in order to win the Krishi Karman Award, which are given by the Union government.
The Krishi Karman Award was instituted in 2010-11 by the UPA government to incentivise states to increase agricultural production. MP has won the award five times since 2012-13.
Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala, speaking to reporters in Bhopal, claimed different figures of production of agriculture commodities were sent by the Madhya Pradesh government to the Centre. He alleged that to claim double digit growth in certain commodities every year, the state government deliberately showed less production of the previous year. Surjewala also admitted to laxity on part of the Centre for overlooking discrepancies.
When asked about the Union government’s alleged oversight in not cross-checking figures provided by the state, Surjewala said, “Who is a bigger fraud? The one who commits it or the one who fails to notice it?”
Surjewala alleged that while the BJP government continued to milk its fake achievements, the condition of farmers continued to deteriorate, resulting in many committing suicide.
Quoting the latest agriculture census released by the Narendra Modi government in September this year, he said though the number of farmers increased between 2011 and 2016, the acreage over the same period decreased by 1.66 lakh hectares in MP.
The BJP has denied the charges and claimed they were politically motivated. State Agriculture Minister Gaurishankar Bisen said that the Congress was pointing fingers at its own government because the first two awards were given when the UPA was in power.