Joshi leads BJP charge in Budget discussion, focuses on agriculture

The Financial Express
Posted: Friday, Jul 10, 2009 at 2140 hrs IST
Updated: Friday, Jul 10, 2009 at 2140 hrs IST

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New Delhi: Discussion on the general budget took off in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with the main opposition party, the BJP, picking on negative growth in the agriculture sector to target the UPA.

Initiating the debate, senior BJP leader Murli Manmohar Joshi put the government on the mat for not achieving targets set during the last five years and said that growth figures promised by the government were exaggerated. “You have set a 9 per cent economic growth target and a 4 per cent growth target for agriculture. It is an ambitious target. If you ensure this, it will be a miracle.”

Quoting from an April 2008 Reserve Bank of India report, Joshi said the slowdown in the agriculture sector had begun in 1991, when the economy was liberalised, and the growth rate previously achieved since Independence, had slowed down. “The entire economy is dependent on agriculture. But the situation in the sector is alarming,” Joshi said, elaborating that there had been a considerable decrease in manpower, farming land and water availability, resulting in food grain production going down drastically.

He said the lack of profit in agriculture had led to farmers quitting the sector in large numbers and migrating to cities in search of livelihood. He also wanted the government to concentrate on the impact of climate change, drinking water supply, health and family welfare, and poverty alleviation.

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