Government committed to welfare of farmers, consumers: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that central government is giving utmost priority to the welfare of farmers migrant workers and consumers and the Union Budget 2021 takes care of the people who are at the bottom of the pyramidWhile addressing a press conference here Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Food amp Public Distribution Railways and Commerce amp Industry Piyush Goyal said this budget has special provisions for the poor farmers and migrant workers those who provided support to the nation in difficult timesHe said the budget of 202122 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses the confidence of India and all set to spread a new wave of Atma Nirbharta across the globeGoyal said Union Budget 2021 touches the life of common man The budget takes care of the poor who is at bottom of the pyramid This budget instils a new hope for new IndiaThe Food Minister said that MSP payment to the farmers remained at an all time high during 20202021 as Rs 75000 cr were paid as MSP for wheat procured in the last season benefiting 4346 lakhs farmers while Rs 172 lakh crore were paid as MSP for paddy to 154 crore farmersStressing on digitisation and modernisation in PDS the Minister said that procurement and distribution is being done in the most transparent mannerGoyal applauded the efforts of the both Departments under Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food amp Public Distribution during Covid19 He expressed his happiness that the departments successfully implemented schemes for distribution of free foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries and Stranded Migrant labourers during this periodMentioning the implementation of Consumer Protection Act 2019 he said that this act has replaced the 33 year old act and it significantly strengthens the rights of consumers and have several new features including simplification of complaints filing dispute adjudication process amp alternate dispute resolution mechanismGoyal said that under this act the sale of adulterated and spurious goods will be strictly acted upon and this act provides regulation for the unfair trade practices in ecommerceHe said that the allocation for sugar industry significantly increased to about 6000 crore and the government has allowed to export 60 lakh tone of sugar and Rs 6 per kg as subsidy is directly paid in the account of sugar cane farmers The diversion of excess sugar and utilization of foodgrains to ethanol for blending with petrol will help in timely payment to sugarcane farmers and increase income of farmers and also to make India selfreliant in petroleum sector he addedGoyal said that the One Nation One Ration Card scheme is a big success and presently an average of about 15 Crore portability transactions both interState and intraState transactions are being recorded every month He further informed that integration of remaining 4 StatesUT Assam Chhattisgarh Delhi and West Bengal is targeted up to March 31 2021 But it will depend upon the technical readiness of the StatesUTs in terms of availability of ePoS devices and operationalisation of biometric authentication of beneficiaries The department is continuously coordinating with these StateUT Governments said the MinisterThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever