NASHIK: Home Minister Amit Shah questioned the value of NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s decade-long tenure as union agriculture minister on Friday, reviving a barbed battle that erupted this month when the latter branded the BJP bigwig “tadipaar” in reference to his two-year exile from Gujarat.
“Being net is not enough, Pawar saheb. You have to work hard on the ground. There has always been a demand for government support to the cooperative sector, but no one thought of it before Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Shah said at a rally in Malegaon. “I want to ask Sharad Pawar ji from this platform: What did you do for the cooperative movement of Maharashtra when you were Union agriculture minister for 10 long years? The citizens of Maharashtra want to know what you did for primary agricultural credit societies , sugar sector Mill and farmer cooperatives? Shah, who also holds the cooperation portfolio, said it was necessary for the BJP-led government to fulfill the long-standing demand for a separate ministry to take advantage of the cooperative sectorThe potential to transform the lives of farmers. “Prime Minister Modi promoted ethanol blending for cooperative sugar mills, resolved the issues they faced regarding Rs 15,000 crore income tax dues in Maharashtra and also reduced taxes on mills, all of which indirectly helped the farmers.”
Deputy CM Eknath Shinde said Modi’s pronouncement “Sahakar Se Samriddhi” was a revolutionary slogan. “Farmers should focus on industries complementary to agriculture and seek help from cooperative sector programs.”
