CM Suvendu Adhikari offers puja at Sarbamangala temple in East Burdwan on Friday
Kolkata/Burdwan: CM Suvendu Adhikari on Friday announced a series of welfare measures for farmers, including additional power subsidy, higher financial assistance and a minimum support price of Rs 2,700/quintal for paddy. A subsidy of Rs 2 per unit will translate into an annual benefit of Rs 25,000-30,000 on electricity used for irrigation by more than 4 lakh farmers, Adhikari said. This would involve an additional allocation of Rs 300 crore from the state exchequer. The CM said state govt will procure paddy from farmers owning up to five acres of land at an MSP of Rs 2,700 per quintal. Farmers selling 100 quintals of paddy will receive an additional incentive of Rs 20,000. Referring to marriages and pregnancies involving girls below 18, the CM said: “From Jan 1 to June 30, sixty thousand deliveries took place in govt hospitals. Murshidabad is number one and South 24 Parganas is second.
Issuing a warning to middlemen and rice mill operators, Adhikari said govt will directly procure the entire quantity of paddy. CM Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said the state would soon enact stringent laws against “love jihad” and “land jihad” and introduce a Uniform Civil Code . “After UCC, we will bring a law against religious conversion,” he said, while addressing an administrative review meeting in Burdwan.
I am warning all those involved, including qazis or priests. We have not come to office merely to provide allowances. “We will establish the rights of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Whoever has prepared fake certificates and whoever has obtained them will all go to jail,” the CM added.