Ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government took the opportunity to showcase achievements of their departments in the special session of UP legislature convened on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The ministers were allotted time and asked to come prepared for their presentations. They spoke for over an hour about their departments’ programmes.
Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi advocated multi-cropping, saying that it was the brainchild of Mahatma Gandhi. “When I was a kid, I saw how multi-cropping benefited the farmers. Modern cropping practices substituted it with single cropping. The Agriculture department is suggesting to farmers to grow two-three crops a year, so that if one crop is destroyed due to insect attack, the farmer can get returns from the other crop,” he said.
Shahi even pointed towards Cane Development Minister Suresh Rana, saying that he should suggest to farmers to grow other crops along with cane as it would be beneficial for them.
The Agriculture minister spoke at length about the schemes that the Yogi government had launched for the welfare of farmers, from crop loan waiver to providing better quality seed, urea and power supply.
“The results are for everyone to see. The government has announced minimum support price (MSP) for potato and corn, a thing unheard of in the previous governments,” he said.
Minister for Non-Conventional Energy, Brijesh Shukla, explained how the new solar policy had helped ease pressure on conventional source of energy.
“We have a target to generate 500 megawatt solar energy and we will achieve the target,” he said.
Legislators also spoke on this occasion and highlighted how their regions had helped in strengthening the economy of the state. Some of them also mentioned about Gandhi’s association with the constituencies they represented.
The special session started at 11 am on Wednesday and would continue uninterrupted till 11 pm on Thursday. During this time, members would discuss ways to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals.