Only middlemen, not farmers protesting in Delhi, Union Min Shobha Karandlaje

Chamarajanagar: After the ‘Janasheervada’ programme held here, the Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare Shobha Karandlaje said that the ones protesting in Delhi against the farm acts are not farmers but middlemen.

She asserted, “Middlemen from Agricultural Produce Market Committee lobby, those who got maximum profit out of APMCs are protesting.”

She added, “The protests in Karnataka against these acts are politically motivated,” and claimed that those who got the highest commissions in the past have been protesting in Punjab and Haryana.

Claiming that there is no leader who can match Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the country, Shobha said, “He has the highest concern for the general public and the farmers. He set aside the highest grants for agriculture in the budget. The grant for agriculture rose from Rs 29,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,32,000 crore now.’

Adding that Shobha asserted, “Agriculture forms six percent of the GDP of India and the agricultural contribution to the country’s GDP has risen from 14 percent to 20 percent during the BJP tenure.”

The Minister informed that the year 2023 will be observed as the year of ‘Siri Dhanya’ and that nations have agreed to the proposal, further informing that the government aims to double the incomes of the farmers.

Responding to H D Kumaraswamy’s statement that the BJP and Congress are moving towards extinction in Karnataka, Shobha asked him to see for himself where he stands now.