Patna: Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh, whose outspokenness has been a cause of embarrassment for the Nitish Kumar government, has resigned from the post, according to his father and state RJD president Jagadanand Singh. The RJD leader said that the agriculture minister, who had been ‘raising his voice in favour of farmers’, decided to put in his papers so that ‘the rift does not deepen’ (‘taaki ladaai aage nahin badhe’).
Sudhakar Singh, who recently flagged the issue of corruption in his own department, on Saturday said he will not allow the ‘continuation of BJP agenda’ in his department with the formation of the Grand Alliance government in the state. Pointing out that he will not rest till the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act and ‘mandi’ system are restored, Singh said the decision of scrapping them in 2006 was ‘anti-farmer’ in nature.
The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar had repealed the APMC Act and ‘mandi’ (wholesale markets for agricultural produce) in 2006 during NDA rule in the state. Sudhakar Singh, whose father Jagadanand Singh is the state RJD president, told PTI- ‘Being the state Agriculture minister, I will not allow continuation of BJP agenda in the agriculture department after the formation of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government in the state. ‘Scrapping the APMC Act and ‘mandi’ in 2006 was a decision that was anti-farmer in nature. The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government in the state should work to fulfilling the promises made by our alliance partners to the electorate’.
A first-time MLA from Ramgarh in Kaimur district, Singh recently stirred up a controversy when he said that all his department officials are ‘thieves and thereby being head of the department he is head of the thieves’. The agriculture minister said he will make restoration of the APMC Act and ‘mandi’ system a ‘national issue’. ‘I have sought an appointment with the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya to apprise them about the need for the restoration of these two laws in the country, especially in Bihar’, Singh said.
During his interactions with the Union ministers Singh said he will also apprise them about the new fertiliser policy of Bihar that is being drafted, he added. What Bihar has gained in the last 17 years in terms of grain production needs to be analysed, the minister said adding ‘despite three agricultural roadmaps, our total grain production was 1.77 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 and we produced 1.76 lakh tonnes in 2021-22. The Bihar government spent several crores over a five-year roadmap, but the achievement is nothing. Everything in my department needs to be overhauled’.
Singh said that he will also urge the Centre to stop giving subsidies to the firms (of the central government) who supply fertilizers in the state as it creates ‘space for mafia and middlemen in the supply chain’. ‘The firms/agencies involved in fertilizer supply to the states are central government entities. It is their duty to supply fertilisers till the last point of the supply chain. But it is not being done and it is paving the way for the entry of middlemen… then why does the Centre give subsidies to them (firms) ?’ he asked.
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