Jaipur, Dec 26 (IANS): Rajasthan BJP state President Satish Poonia on Friday interacted with the farmers in an open field during a 'Kisaan Chaupal' and said that for the first time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accomplished the task of giving 1.5 times MSP to the farmers and made best arrangements for them for advanced farming, away from traditional farming techniques.

"The budget of agriculture in this country during the Congress regime in 2013-14 was Rs 21,000 crore. Today it has gone up to Rs 1.34 lakh crore. The increased budget aims to make the farmers of India prosperous through innovation," he said.

On this occasion, Poonia had the opportunity to watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi's live virtual televised dialogue with the farmers in the fields.

Poonia also paid floral tribute to former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of the latter's 96th birth anniversary.

Poonia said that the farmers in Maheshwas village in his Amer Assembly constituency strongly supported the newly enacted farm laws.

"If they (Congress) have so much sympathy for the farmers, why did they not implement all the schemes that Atal ji implemented or which are now being implemented by Prime Minister Modi," he asked.

Poonia further said that Vajpayee and Modi for the first time took the historic decision to make farmers prosperous by implementing the Kisan Credit Card Scheme.

"Crores of farmers of the country are taking advantage of it. Vajpayee ji started all these innovative schemes. He launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Today on his birth anniversary, we are celebrating Good Governance Day and in this connection, the Prime Minister today addressed the farmers of various states, discussing the three agricultural laws," he said.

The BJP state unit chief further said that in 2019, the Congress manifesto talked about the abolition of mandis while contract farming was also started by its governments in Haryana and Punjab and is still happening there today.

"Farmers benefit from the innovations in agriculture in many parts of the country, so I think that there is no confusion among the majority of the farmers about the three agricultural laws.

"Prime Minister Modi today transferred an amount of Rs 18,000 crore directly into the accounts of 9 crore farmers of the country. The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi direct benefit scheme is the world's largest direct transfer scheme. The Modi government is running schemes with a proper and robust system so that the farmers can get the benefits of advanced farming away from traditional farming," Poonia said.

"Prime Minister Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar are constantly appealing to the farmers to withdraw the movement. I am confident that a positive solution will come out soon," he added.