Jai Ram Thakur questions Himachal CM on cow dung procurement promise

Shimla, Nov 6 (IANS) Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur said on Wednesday that the ruling Congress has not fulfilled the promise of buying cow dung from the farmers even after two years of forming the government.

Thakur claimed that the ruling Congress had given a guarantee of buying cow dung from the farmers during the Assembly elections.

The Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and other leaders of the Congress had announced that with the formation of the government, they would buy cow dung from the farmers at the rate of Rs 2 per kilo.

“Now after two years of tenure, the government is saying that it will buy compost and not cow dung. Do the Chief Minister, ministers and other people sitting in the government not understand the difference between cow dung and compost? How much time does it take to make compost from cow dung and how much compost is made from how much cow dung? This is not known to the people sitting in the government but the farmers of the state know,” Thakur said.

“On one hand, the central government is bringing schemes for zero-budget farming in the country, on the other the government wants to buy readymade compost from the farmers at cheap prices. When the farmer makes compost from his own cow dung, then what is the need to sell the compost at Rs 3 per kilo? It is the insensitivity of the government to charge Rs 3 to buy the compost prepared after so much hard work,” he said in a statement.

Thakur said all decisions of the government “are ridiculous. The government only tries to cheat the people. Like the rest of the guarantees, the government now wants to fulfil the guarantee of cow dung purchase as well. The entire Congress party is on the back foot due to the embarrassment caused by the Himachal government and Congress' guarantees across the country. Due to which, the Chief Minister has also been reprimanded by the high command,” he added.

The Congress President has also now publicly said one should think before giving a guarantee. “Due to the current situation in Himachal, the Congress has been embarrassed in the elections being held across the country. It has become difficult for Congress leaders to go among the people in the Assembly elections being held in different areas of the country. In such a situation, there is pressure on the Chief Minister. Therefore, he wants to pat his back by claiming to fulfil the guarantee before the elections, so he is planning to cheat the people of the state again,” the Leader of the Opposition said.

--IANS

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