Port Blair, July 29: Mr. Vishal Jolly, National Executive Committee Member, BJP has expressed his heartiest gratitude to Prime Minister Mananiya Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Mananiya Amit Shah, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Affairs Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt of India, Mr. Kailash Choudhary, Lt. Governor Admiral (Retd) D. K. Joshi, Chief Secretary- A & N Administration Mr. Keshav Chandra and all others involved in the process of restarting the procurement of COPRA from the farmers of A & N Islands on Minimum Support Price after more than a decade.
Mr. Vishal Jolly has hailed the outstanding initiatives taken by the BJP led Central Government for the benefit of COPRA producing farmers of the Islands. It is pertinent to mention here that the farmers of the Islands were compelled to sell COPRA in the market for only around Rs. 38/- per kg and now the minimum support price of the same has been fixed for Rs. 108.60 per kg by the Government of India and the procurement has been started today at Priyadarshini Indoor Stadium, Tamaloo, Car Nicobar, through the Central Nodal agency NAFED and State Level Supporters ANCOFED, EHL and TDCS, at various islands of Andaman & Nicobar.
He further pointed that this step has been taken under Pradhan Mantri Anndata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan of Price Support Scheme (PSS), by way of which, the income of the COPRA producing farmers of our Islands, especially the large number of farmers belonging to Nicobar District has increased manifold and as a result of which the economic growth and development of farmers has been positively impacted.
Mr. Vishal Jolly further added that COPRA Procurement, 2023 is a result of constant & relentless efforts of the BJP-A & N Islands, a delegation of which had vehemently placed this issue before the Union Home Minister during his visits in these Islands and had also taken up this issue before the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at New Delhi, earlier.