Days after the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana locked in a battle of words over which state is doing better on the agriculture front, the Manohar Lal Khattar government on Friday claimed Haryana has surpassed its neighbour and ‘elder brother’ Punjab when it comes to agriculture.

Without naming the Punjab CM, Captain Amarinder Singh, the Haryana government said with agricultural growth three times that of Punjab, the state is much ahead of Punjab in agriculture-related government schemes.

“The farmers of Haryana and Punjab have always been instrumental in making the country ‘Atmanirbhar’ with regard to food grains, but in the last few years due to the agricultural policies adopted by Haryana government along with the hard work of its farmers, the state despite having a small geographical spread, has moved ahead of its ‘elder brother’ Punjab,” an official spokesperson said in a statement.

” The state of Punjab undoubtedly has a wider spread than Haryana in terms of total area and cultivable land, however, the bold decisions taken by the present government under the dynamic leadership of the Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, in the last seven years to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of 21 fruits and vegetables and 11 crops and then to procure them has paid off, in comparison to which Punjab stands nowhere close to the state with regard to agriculture,” it said.

“Whatever be the reasons for the backwardness of Punjab in comparison to Haryana, the root cause of development in Haryana are the positive steps taken by the state government in the interests of farmers in the last few years under the leadership of CM Khattar,” the statement said.

“Haryana is far ahead of its ‘elder brother’ Punjab with regard to giving farmers a genuine price for their crops and procuring them at the Minimum Support Price. In Haryana, 11 crops including, wheat, barley, gram, sunflower, mustard, paddy, moong, maize, millet, cotton, and groundnut, are purchased at the MSP, while in Punjab only three crops namely wheat, paddy, and sunflower are procured at MSP,” the statement said.

Haryana is probably the only state in the country where the farmers visiting the mandis and the arhtiyas working there are provided with an insurance of Rs 10 lakh while there is no such scheme in Punjab, added.

The statement said according to government data, about 17 lakh farmers got about Rs 4,000 crore as crop insurance in Haryana. “Besides this, an amount of Rs 7,000 crore was also given to more than 34 lakh farmers in lieu of compensation for other losses to the farmers while for the farmers of Punjab, the government there has not started any crop-insurance scheme,” it said.