Rs 7.95 Crore Spent on Awareness for Agriculture Reforms & New Farm Bill: Narendra Singh Tomar

The Centre has spent over Rs 7.95 crore in five months till January for a publicity campaign to bust myths about the new farm laws, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed Parliament.

Out of this, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry committed Rs  7,25,57,246 for release of advertisements between September 2020 and January 2021 on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, he said.

Tomar, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, further said the print advertisements have been published through the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) in Hindi, English and regional language newspapers for “clarifications related to farm laws including on myth and realities,

etc” for creating awareness among the farmers and other stakeholders.

The Agriculture Ministry has incurred an expenditure of Rs 67,99,750 on production of three promotional and two educational films on the farm laws for its wider publicity through electronic media, social media and webinars.

Besides, miscellaneous expenditure of Rs 1,50,568 was incurred on development of creatives for print advertisement, the minister added.

On expenses incurred on overseas publicity campaign, the minister said there was “nil” expenditure as per the information received from the Ministry of External Affairs