Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday said introduction of goods trains will benefit the farmers as well as the people of Meghalaya. However, the CM clarified that the state Government has no intention to bulldoze its way.
Assuring to carry along everybody, the Chief Minister said the state Government will engage with the different stakeholders before moving forward.
He was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the 3rd Farmers’ Parliament held at the State Convention Centre.
Sangma said that the state government is still discussing with the Government of India on the matter and also with the various stakeholders. He said there are still concerns and therefore, the government is not able to take the proposal for introduction of a goods train forward.
“Goods train is obviously something that is very positive. It will really help the farmers and the larger society at large and it is something which we have also been very supportive of and discussed with the Government of India but we still have many concerns that are there,” he said.
The chief minister also reiterated that the government wants to resolve all these concerns and has no intention to bulldoze its way.
“I have been very clear from day one that till those concerns are not resolved we are not going to bulldoze anything because yes development is necessary but it should be a development which is acceptable by everybody and we carry along everybody so we will engage with the different stakeholders and we will see how we take this discussion forward,” he said.
Stating that the day has been dedicated to the farmers of the state, Sangma said, “It (parliament) is done primarily because we felt that there was need to give special attention by recognizing them, by motivating them, by supporting them, hand holding them and whereas many programmes are going on across the board, different mission mode programmes, different financial incentives, different trainings, different technological interventions. While all of this is happening, we felt that we need to have one day dedicated to the farmers in the form of a farmer’s day, in the form of a farmers’ parliament. So it is really a day of celebration.”
He said it is a day of opportunity for the farmers to bring out different concerns, different issues also and at the same time it is also a platform where the farmers can discuss about how to improve things in the future, the challenges that may be there in the coming decades not just currently now and really set the tone for the right eco-system so that the farmers can prosper and really move forward in life.
“There are many challenges and of course there are many difficulties we faced and which we will continue to face and if we are all together and work together as a team and we support each other, we will be able to overcome those challenges and take things forward.”
Asked, Sangma said, “There are multiple ways. I can just share with you that apart from these regulated markets, we have come out with a large number of farmer markets. We are now setting up farmer markets in different places where we are allowing the farmers to have their own associations and run these markets in their own terms and conditions so that nobody else will come in and kind of take advantage or someway or the other of the situation and the farmers will be given full power as well as authority to be able to manage and run the markets as they feel correct.”
“There is a massive step towards that and we will continue to expand these farmer markets – some of them are already functional and some of them we will make them functional soon. So these kinds of steps are being taken to ensure that there are more options that are now available to the farmers,” he added.
Adding to this, Agriculture Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the marketing concepts of the modern generation have also changed today. You are looking at markets where connection with farmers is more relevant for sale of a product rather than going to the conventional regulated market.
“In a regulated market you have other kinds of products and products which are likely to have short shelf life. Here we are looking at connecting farmers to international marts. We just saw we attended the world food mart. There we have very good interventions. We have several other such markets which are happening online, in which the department is hand holding the farmers to market their products globally,” she said.