CHANDIGARH, DECEMBER 14: Showing deep concern over the falling prices of Potato crop, the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday assured the House to address this issue on priority, thus expressing his Government’s complete solidarity with the distressed potato growers.
He was intervening on the reply given by Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa on behalf of the Chief Minister, who holds the portfolio of Agriculture, to a call attention notice raised by MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala.
Captain Amarinder Singh said that his Government had already raised with the Union Government the demand for allowing export of potatoes and sugar to Russia, UAE, Iran and Sri Lanka for fetching better prices of these crops. The Chief Minister further pointed out that his Government had sought the personal intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Ministry of commerce and Industries to allow Punjab to export these crops to ensure price stabilisation, as both potato and sugarcane crops were afflicted by wide price fluctuations.
He said that once the Centre gives clearance to the State Government for export of these crops, the farmers would be immensely benefitted in terms of lucrative returns and assured marketability of their produce.
To bail out the potato growers from the current crisis of low price, the Chief Minister also assured that all possible steps would be initiated to enhance the consumption of potatoes especially in the mid-day meal, jails and other government departments, so as to stabilise the prices of the crop.
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