Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday hailed BJP’s election manifesto terming it as a historic “resolution” to make India developed.
The BJP released its “Sankalp Patra” at its headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“The Sankalp Patra of the Bharatiya Janata Party that has come today ahead 2024 Lok Sabha elections is very historic. This is a historic manifesto of PM Modi’s guarantee to make India developed,” Maurya said.
This Sankalp Patra pays respect to the elderly and provides them with medical facilities. A Uniform Civil Code has been promised in the manifesto. The poor will continue to get ration for 5 years. One country, one election is a very big decision. It will be very beneficial for the development of the country,” he added.
He said that, for the differently abled, the manifesto gives them will allow them to become stakeholders under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Women’s empowerment will be promoted further. More than one crore registrations have been done to build Suryagraha, due to which the poor will get a house along with free electricity, he said.
The BJP unveiled its election manifesto with a slew of promises for farmers, such as strengthening PM KISAN, PM Fasal Bima Yojana and news clusters for vegetable production and storage among others.
“The dignity and empowerment of farmers is one of our top-most priorities. We have empowered our Kisans through a variety of measures including soil health cards, micro-irrigation, crop insurance, seed supply, and direct financial assistance under PM Kisan Samman Yojana. We have increased MSP multi-fold. We are committed to support our Kisan families and empower them to lead better lives,” the party said in its manifesto.
“We have ensured an unprecedented increase in MSP for major crops, and we will continue to increase MSP from time to time,” it added.
The document, which underlined the party’s ‘Modi ki guarantee’ slogan, lays down the Narendra Modi government’s vision and promises for every section of society. The manifesto stressed Prime Minister Modi’s focus on ‘GYAN’ – the poor, the youth, farmers and the women.
It also said that it will further strengthen the PM Fasal Bima Yojana through more technological interventions to ensure speedy and more accurate assessment, faster payouts and quicker grievance resolution.
The party further said that it will support the cultivators to make the country self-reliant in the production of pulses (like tur, urad, masoor, moong and chana) and edible oil production (like mustard, soybean, til and groundnut).
“We will support Annadatas with requisite farming inputs to increase the production of nutritious vegetables by establishing new clusters for the production of essentials like onion, tomato, potato etc. We will also set up storage and logistics facilities at these clusters,” it added.
“Building on the success of the International Year of Millets, we will promote Shree Anna (millets) for food security, nutrition and environmental sustainability and make Bharat a Global Millet Hub,” he added.
Notably, in February this year, the farmers called for a huge protest- ‘Delhi Chalo’ over their several demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price on all crops, according to the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, and a farm loan waiver.
During the last round of talks with the farmers’ delegation, which ended past midnight on February 18, the panel of three Union ministers made an offer to buy five crops–moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize, and cotton–from farmers at MSP for five years through central agencies.
However, the protesting farmers turned down the offer and returned to their protest sites.
Meanwhile, the party had promised to launch the “National Mission on Natural Farming” to promote nature-friendly, climate-resilient, remunerative agriculture for food and nutrition that secures the country.
The party further said that it will launch a Krishi Infrastructure Mission for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of agri-infrastructure projects like storage facilities, irrigation, grading and sorting units, cold storage facilities, and food processing among others.
“Further, we will launch technology-enabled irrigation initiatives to implement cutting-edge technology for efficient water management,” it added.
The BJP also promised to launch an indigenous ‘Bharat Krishi’ satellite for farm-related activities like crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil health, and weather forecasting, among others.
“We will develop Digital Public Infrastructure to remove information asymmetry in agriculture and provide farmer-centric solutions and services. We will expand the network of dairy cooperatives in villages in the next five years with facilities of fodder banks, milk testing laboratories, bulk milk coolers, and milk processing units,” the manifesto released by the BJP reads
