Agriculture minister says wrong policies of Congress causing delay in resolving farm crisis

Terming the budget for 2019-20 as historic, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh Friday said it was taking a little longer to resolve farmers' problems due to the wrong policies of the previous Congress governments. "Since the past 48 years only slogans were raised for farmers and poor...only one family gained strength during this period," the minister told reporters here.

"It is because of the wrong policies of the Congress governments in the past that it is taking long to resolve the problems of farmers but the Central government is committed to double the income of farmers by 2022," he said. He also blamed the Congress for farmer suicides.

To a question on decrease in farmers' income, he said the Centre has brought many revolutionary schemes but global slowdown and dip in inflation at the domestic level has led to this. On the budget, he said it is for the first time since Independence that over 12 crore marginal farmers will get annual assistance of Rs 6,000.