Mamata lauds state govt after Bengal bags Krishi Karman award again

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her happiness after Bengal got nominated for the Krishi Karman award by the Centre yet again. She also congratulated the government officials who contributed to achieving the significant milestone.

Taking to Twitter, Banerjee said: "I am happy to share that West Bengal has been selected once again for Krishi Karman Award by Govt of India for the year 2017-18, primarily for maize production."

"Earlier, we received it for five consecutive years from 2011-12 to 2015-16. I want to congratulate all state officials involved for their performance. Keep up the good work," she added. It may be mentioned here that the state Agriculture department has increased the production of cereals and also ensured a sharp rise in production and increase in the area of maize cultivation. In the past few years, there has been a manifold increase in production of food grains and oil seeds. Major steps were taken to bring in more agricultural land under oil seed cultivation.

The Centre had not issued any Krishi Karman award last year. In the past, the state government has experienced a growth in the cultivation of food grains. The increase has helped the state top the list among all other states a number of times, in this particular segment. In oil seed cultivation too, there has been a growth of more than 30 percent in Bengal.

It can be stated that in order to bag the award, representatives from the state Agriculture department are required to give different presentations in Delhi, demonstrating the methods and processes opted by the state government to augment the production of cereals and food grains.

The Centre also has its own mechanism to monitor the performance of the state. It has a satellite-based system for monitoring, which helps prepare a list containing names of all states. Subsequently, a state is awarded, based on certain parameters.