Panaji, August 2: Here comes another irrational comment from a minister, and this time it is Goa Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai who has suggested that to attract youth to take up a career in farming, there should be beauty contests in paddy fields. This controversial comment was made by him, while he was responding to the Demands for Grants for Agriculture department in the Legislative Assembly.

He stressed the importance to make agriculture an attractive profession. He said, "The need of the hour is to incentivise agriculture. If you want, you can even host beauty contests in paddy fields. Let the youth come. You can do that. Do everything possible to get the young generation to the fields". He further advised the farmers to chant a Vedic mantra in their fields and adopt "cosmic farming" techniques to increase the yield. He asked the farmer to meditate and chant Om Rom Jum Sah to get a better crop.

This is not the first time, the Minister is in the news for his controversial comments. Speaking at GoaBiz Fest in Bambolin in February this year, Sardesai had warned against the “North Indians “who wanted to “create Haryana in Goa”. He was quoted as saying, “Now we are dependent upon the north Indians and this is what they do. They are not bothered about Goa. They want to recreate Haryana in Goa."

(With inputs from PTI)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 02, 2018 02:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).