VS Budget Session
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 21 Feb: During Question Hour, today, on the fourth day of the budget session, Agriculture Minister Ganesh Joshi was unable to convincingly respond to a question regarding traditional and natural farming posed by ruling and opposition MLAs. As he failed to respond effectively to the question, the Opposition members demanded suspension of the question to which Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan acceded and the question was suspended till the next session. This postponement of the question provided the Congress MLAs with an opportunity to taunt him, and they seized the opportunity to indulge in the same, even when the original question had been asked by BJP MLA from Doiwala, Brijbhushan Gairola. The question asked by the ruling party MLA somehow caught the attention of opposition MLAs, who heavily criticised the minister. They persisted with the demand that the minister explain the difference between natural farming and traditional farming. Joshi struggled to differentiate between natural and traditional farming methods, prompting further scrutiny from the opposition.
Brij Bhushan Gairola had inquired about efforts to promote natural farming in Uttarakhand. In response, the Agriculture Minister cited some schemes to promote natural farming. However, Congress MLAs Pritam Singh and Virendra Jati pressed the minister to explain the difference between natural and traditional farming, leading to further embarrassment for Joshi.
The barrage of questions from both opposition and ruling party MLAs, including Vinod Chamoli, Munna Singh Chauhan, and Durgesh Lal, left the minister unable to provide satisfactory answers. As a result, the Assembly Speaker suspended the question.
Despite continuous questioning, no senior officer from the Agriculture Department officer could provide a satisfactory answer to the minister in order to help him wriggle out of the trouble. Ganesh Joshi insisted that he had given complete answers but respected the Speaker’s decision to adjourn the question. The Agriculture Minister later reprimanded the officials and announced plans to seek clarification from them.
Speaker Ritu Khanduri explained that the question had been suspended due to the minister’s inability to provide satisfactory answers regarding natural farming, despite being given ample time.
It may be pertinent to point out here that natural farming avoids chemical fertilisers and pesticides and relies on natural cycles of natural resources while the traditional farming does use synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
