In a scathing letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari has exposed the dire state of the state’s agriculture department. Thousands of critical positions remain vacant, leaving farmers in distress amid government apathy.
Madhya Pradesh, often hailed as India’s agricultural heartland, is grappling with a crumbling farm bureaucracy. Patwari highlighted that out of 14,500 sanctioned posts in the agriculture department, nearly 8,500 are lying empty. This means over 60% of the staff is absent, crippling service delivery to millions of farmers.
The Congress leader didn’t stop at numbers. He pointed fingers at the systemic failure across allied departments, questioning how the state government can claim to resolve farmers’ woes under these circumstances. The 2026 declaration as ‘Agriculture Welfare Year’ now rings hollow against this backdrop of neglect.
Patwari took a direct swipe at Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a former long-time Chief Minister of MP. ‘If the agriculture system had been strengthened during his two-decade tenure, it wouldn’t be in such shambles today,’ he wrote.
Demanding immediate intervention, Patwari urged the PM to review vacancies, direct the state to launch recruitment drives swiftly, and devise a national strategy to bolster grassroots institutional capacity for effective farm scheme implementation.
This call comes at a time when farmer unrest is simmering across the country. With elections on the horizon, Patwari’s letter amplifies Congress’s narrative of governance lapses in BJP-ruled MP, putting pressure on both state and central leadership to act before the sowing season intensifies farmer grievances.