Raipur: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday pledged to hike the paddy procurement price in Chhattisgarh by Rs 360 per quintal, besides giving more incentives to landless farm labourers if his party won the two-phase Assembly elections in November.
Addressing a public meeting in Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, Gandhi announced that the procurement price of paddy would be hiked from Rs 2,640 per quintal to Rs 3,000 per quintal.
The Chhattisgarh government is the only one which procures paddy directly from farmers. The scheme was introduced by the Raman Singh government in 2003.
The Bhupesh Baghel government had recently hiked the procurement price of paddy from Rs 2,500 to Rs 2,640 per quintal.
Gandhi also declared that the party, if it retained power, would increase the incentives given to the landless agriculture labourers to Rs 10,000 per annum.
“I interacted with the farm labourers in Raipur on Sunday. They told me that the current incentive of Rs 7,000 provided to them is not adequate and hence I have decided to increase the incentive to Rs 10,000 per annum,” Gandhi, who joined agriculture labourers in harvesting paddy crops in Raipur, said.
He also promised to develop “two to three” international airports in Chhattisgarh to provide air connectivity to foreign countries if Congress formed the government at the Centre.
Gandhi also promised to establish food processing industries in each district of Chhattisgarh.
The Congress leader praised the Bhupesh Baghel government, saying that what was done by the Congress government in Chhattisgarh in the last five years was not done earlier by any government.
“We will see that the Chhattisgarh model of development is implemented in other states”, he said.
Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having failed to fulfill his promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to every Indian and pointed out that the Bhupesh Baghel government had waived off crop loans of farmers in Chhattisgarh as soon as it assumed office in December 2018.
Chhattisgarh is going to the polls in two phases on November 7 and November 17.
