New Delhi: Attacking the previous governments, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that the farmers of Uttar Pradesh were forced to commit suicide before 2017, but his government took up their cause in an earnest way to change their fortune.

The period between 2007 and 2017 witnessed several sugar mills were either closed or sold at throwaway prices making the lives of cane farmers miserable, he said. “There were even hunger deaths in December 2016 and January 2017, before we came to power,” said the CM.

“The previous governments did the work of ruining the condition of farmers where they were forced to commit suicide. Our government revived all the shut sugar mills and even set up new ones. With this, our government also ensured timely payment to the sugarcane farmers,” said CM Adityanath while marking 4.5 years of its government, at Lok Bhawan, Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh government has cleared over 84.29 percent of dues of sugarcane farmers of the state, making it the highest and fastest payment in a season in the past 50 years. The sugar mills have procured 1,028 lakh tons of sugarcane worth Rs 33,025 crore of which dues of Rs 27,837.52 crore have been cleared.

The Yogi government has transformed the sugarcane sector in Uttar Pradesh with its commitment to pay every penny of the sugarcane farmers. Over 45.22 lakh sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been paid a record cane price payment of more than Rs 1,42,889 crore between 2017-2021 which indicates the pro-farmer stance of the government.

“In the previous governments, the sugarcane price of Rs 95,000 crore was paid, whereas from 2017 till now Rs 1.43 lakh crore has been paid. Between 2007 and 2017 all the sugar mills were either sold at throwaway prices or were shut down,” said the CM.

It is noteworthy that during Mayawati’s tenure from 2007-2012, 30 lakh cane farmers were paid Rs 52,131 crore and during the Akhilesh regime from 2012-2017, a payment of Rs 95,215 crore was made to 33 lakh farmers.

The payment made by the BJP-led UP government is twice the amount that was made by the former Bahujan Samaj Party government and 1.5 times more than the Samajwadi Party government.

Highlighting the procurement made by the government during the previous Kharif and Rabi marketing season, the CM said “During 2016-17, only 6 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was procured through the middlemen, and not directly from the farmers. The farmers did not get the benefit of the MSP. Even during the Covid period, more than 66 lakh metric tonnes of paddy were purchased from the farmers at MSP by our government.”

As far as the procurement of wheat is concerned, our government purchased more than 56 lakh metric tons of wheat. In the previous government, it did not even reach 6 lakh metric tonnes. The purchase was done through middlemen, but we procured this directly from the farmers and the payment was made through DBT, he added.