Chandigarh – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has dubbed the dictatorial decision of Modi-led union government to impose a quantum cut on MSP on account of ‘discolored’ wheat grain, as anti-farmer, which was set to cost the state farmers dear. It demanded immediate roll back on the anti-farmer decision.
In a statement issued from AAP office in Chandigarh on Monday here, Punjab unit chief and Member of Parliament from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann said that while the farmers on the one hand were suffering due to natural calamities and weather conditions, on others the SAD-BJP combine was acting as the sworn foes of the farmers.
He said that farmers were a worried lot as the union government had relaxed the norms on the sale of the discolored wheat grain, but at the same time announced a financial cut of Rs 4.60 per quintal, which, Mann said, had come a shot of a sledge-hammer.
He said that the distressed farmers were facing huge economic crisis due to anti-farmer policies of the central and state government. The number of cases of suicides committed by the debt-ridden farmers and farm laborers in the state were indicative of the deeper malaise. He said the latest decision of the Modi Government was the rare of the rarest examples of dispensation’s insensitivity, he said.
The AAP leader demanded that Captain Amarinder Singh government should immediate intervene and get the matter surrounding the farmers resolved sooner than later by broaching the issue with the union government.
Attacking Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, he said that where was she sitting with her fingers crossed when such anti-farmers’ decisions were being taken by the government at the centre? Mann said that if the Badals had a semblance of love lost with the farmers, they should get the decision rolled back, he said.
Mann said that untimely rain and hailstorm had damaged the standing crops of farmers in the state worth crores, the Modi government, instead of offering some kind of a bonus, it had imposed the ‘cut’ on the MSP. He said ‘Mandi’ mafia had been blackmailing the hassled farmers on the pretext of ‘moisture content’ and charging ‘Gunda tax’ from them without any fear of the law with the government sitting with its eyes closed.
Mann said that the Modi and Captain governments should take a cue from the Delhi’s Kejriwal government, which had already implemented the Swaminathan recommendations, offering MSP Rs 2616 per quintal, while Punjab farmers were not paid even Rs 1840.
Similarly, he said, in case of natural calamities, the central and government of Punjab paid not even 12 thousand rupees to farmers, while the Kejriwal government was providing compensation to farmers to the tune of Rs 20 thousand per quintal in Delhi.
