Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday strongly objected to the allegation leveled by Prime Minister M K Stalin that the Center had directed Tamil Nadu not to provide incentives for purchasing paddy from farmers.
Addressing an election rally in Thanjavur on April 11, Stalin claimed that the Center had sent a letter to the Tamil Nadu government advising it to stop offering incentives on paddy procured from farmers as it leads to increased production.
“The message sent not only to Tamil Nadu but to the chief secretaries of all states is merely an advice that incentive policies offered by state governments should be integrated with national priorities,” the finance minister said in a social media post on Sunday.
Sitharaman added that such a directive to Tamil Nadu not to provide incentives for paddy procurement is “completely false, politically motivated, and a deliberate distortion created with the aim of misleading farmers”.
Such advice from the Union government is “constructive and visionary aimed at encouraging crop diversification,” Sitharaman said. “By doing so, the way will be paved for farmers to grow crops with high domestic demand and earn higher profits.”
She explained that announcing incentives or bonuses above the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is always under the individual authority of the respective state governments and added: “No one has snatched away that authority.”
Instead of acting constructively with concern for national welfare, President Stalin engages in planned diversionary activities for narrow, selfish political gains, she said.
“When the central government offers constructive cooperation, the DMK tries to exploit it.” I claimed.
Sitharaman asserted that whichever party rules the state, the NDA government will continue to work tirelessly for every farmer in every state. She added: “We will never back down from such deliberately fabricated cases.”
