The Hindu : Ajit Singh cornered over remarks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003

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Ajit Singh cornered over remarks

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi April 22. The Union Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, was cornered in the Rajya Sabha today over his reported remarks in the media that in a democracy every sector got its share (of budgetary allocation) according to the strength of its lobby.

As the Minister was concluding his reply to the discussion on the functioning of the Agriculture Ministry, the Congress members, Pranab Mukherjee and Suresh Pachauri asked him to clarify his remarks made to a newspaper.

Mr. Singh said he should not be expected to react to every newspaper report, which was not tabled or was not an authenticated document. He did not find anything wrong in saying that every sector gets its share on the strength of its lobby. For 50 years agriculture had been neglected by successive governments. In the last two-three years, under this government, agriculture had come centrestage.

"Are you saying that the Government takes its decisions under the pressure of certain lobbies,'' Mr. Mukherjee sought to know. He wanted to know whether a Cabinet Minister could air his opinion publicly..the question arises about the collective responsibility of the Government, he said.

"I never said it. I am not going to answer it,'' Mr. Singh said even as S.S. Ahluwalia (BJP) rose in his defence.

The issue was raised by Mr. Pachauri during the discussion on the functioning of the Ministry of Agriculture initiated by Rama Shankar Kaushik (SP) on Monday.

Earlier, in his reply to the discussion lasting over four hours, Mr. Singh said the agriculture sector had undergone vast changes in the last few years and was still undergoing changes. The thrust therefore had to be on new methods of farming, better variety of high-yielding seeds, irrigation facilities including drip and sprinkler, on farm water management, credit input, marketing and quality. "The important thing is to maintain the incomes of small landholding farmers.''

Mr. Singh said that as it was not possible for the Government to do this alone, private sector participation should be welcomed. The agri clinics and Krishi Vigyan Kendras should be developed with linkages with Internet services.

The Minister said while there might be apprehensions about corporate farming, the Government was all for contract farming. It will encourage tripartite contracts between the Government, the landholding farmer and the processor so that there was some kind of insurance for each party.

He said cooperatives were the only vehicle through which farmers can market their produce. For this it was essential that the State go in for reforms in the cooperative sector and come up with new laws.

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