INSIDE KERALA ASSEMBLY

Agri minister still bitter with Jayasurya, says his anti-government 'script' bombed

What actor Jayasurya said during an Onam-related event in Kochi, 'Karshakolsavam', continues to rankle the LDF government.

It was Congress MLA Sunny Joseph, while moving an adjournment motion on the crisis in the agriculture sector in the Assembly on Thursday, who referred to Jayasurya's criticism. "When Jayasurya spoke of the plight of farmers, the LDF was interested only in unleashing a vicious social media offensive against him. Even Jayasurya could empathise with the suffering of farmers, not the government," Joseph said.

Agriculture minister P Prasad was once again provoked. "Many rumours were spread about the implementation of the Paddy Receipt Sheet (PRS) mechanism and one of these was created by a reputed film actor," the minister said.

Later, after making his arguments, the minister used film business lingo to debunk Jayasurya. "This film star has churned out a new script by referring to a farmer who had secured all his money many months ago. Like certain films that bomb on the first day, this script too was a wash out on the day of its release," Prasad said. The farmer the minister mentioned was actor Krishna Prasad.

The minister said the PRS mechanism was devised in association with banks to solve the difficulty in getting funds from the Centre and the state. Under the scheme, paddy farmers get the money for their produce as loan from banks when they submit the PRS. It is the State government that repays the money with interest. "It is a lie that farmers were asked to pay interest for the money they were paid under the PRS scheme," Prasad said.

Nonetheless, the minister conceded that such a system had affected the CIBIL score of farmers. Later, Opposition Leader V D Satheesan said the lowering of the farmer's creditworthiness was the result of the government's failure to pay hundreds of crores to the banks. "When the government defaulted and the arrears mounted, the banks downgraded the CIBIL score of banks," the Opposition Leader said. "As a consequence, farmers were unable to source any other loan," he added.

The minister sought to transfer the blame to banks. "Banks like SBI were creating a lot of problems, they refused to release money. They said that money would be paid against only five PRSs a day," he said, and added: "Why is the Opposition silent about the behaviour of banks?"

Satheesan dismissed the argument. "Why is the minister getting angry with the Opposition for its problems with the banking consortium," he asked. "Negotiating with banks is your job, is part of governance. Should the Opposition conduct a press conference against the SBI? If you find it hard, leave the negotiation to us," Satheesan said, words dripping with sarcasm.

When banks became difficult to handle, the minister said other options were explored. "Even when burdened by Onam-related fiscal stress, Rs 150 crore was borrowed to pay the farmers," he said. Simultaneously, he said the government attempted to expedite the disbursal of funds from the banks.

Prasad said that the government did not want to respond to Jayasurya after industries minister P Rajeeve gave him a fitting reply at the event. "But on that day, the actor had based his criticism on a particular farmer who he said could not celebrate Onam because he had not received his money. This farmer is closely linked to a political party. It was then that we decided to put the record straight," he said. "This farmer, Krishna Prasad, had received all his money many months before," he said. Krishna Prasad, too, had admitted to this.

At this point, former Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala intervened with a mild rebuke. "Why can't you concede that there has been an inordinate delay in paying the farmers? Aren't you aware of the suffering of farmers? This is no time to score political points," Chennithala said.

The minister said that he was only trying to say that it was not right to blame the government for the delay. The Opposition Leader, when his turn came, made a rhetorical remark. "Never before have paddy farmers in Kerala had to wait this long to get their money."

It was later, after the Opposition staged a walk out, that Food and Civil Supplies minister G R Anil got a chance to counter Satheesan. He said in 2014, when UDF was in power, the then agriculture minister had told the Assembly that there was a delay of six months.