New Delhi, October 19 (IANS). On Saturday, at the Congress headquarters in the national capital New Delhi, the party’s national media coordinator Abhay Dubey strongly criticized the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, calling them anti-farmer.
While addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Congress media coordinator Abhay Dubey, citing the report of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, termed the Modi government as anti-farmer and demanded immediate legal guarantee of minimum support price to the farmers. He said, “The misbehavior that the Modi government has done to the farmers in the last ten years has made it clear that Narendra Modi is anti-farmer. The crop is neither being procured adequately, nor is it getting a fair price, nor Legal guarantee of MSP (minimum support price) is being given.
He said, as soon as it came to power, the first decision the Modi government took was that if the state government gives a bonus of Rs 150 to the farmers on paddy-wheat at the minimum support price, then we will stop purchasing the grains at the minimum support price. In the second decision, the Modi government brought an ordinance to trample the Fair Compensation for Farmers’ Land Act. In the third decision, Modi government gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that if farmers are given minimum support price by adding 50 percent on top of the cost, then the market will end. That is, Swaminathan’s recommendations were refused.
The Congress leader said that PM Modi had said in 2016 that the income of farmers would double by 2022, but their income remained at Rs 27 per day and the average loan on every farmer was Rs 74 thousand. Narendra Modi said in a rally that we are coming up with the world’s best crop insurance scheme, but it has become a profit scheme for private companies.
He said, a shocking revelation has been made in the 69th report of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. It was said that the then Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar had been writing letters to Narendra Modi since 2017 asking him to remove GST on agricultural equipment, but the Modi government did not take cognizance of it. Now Modi government has announced support price for Rabi season. Compared to last year, this increase is only 2.4 to seven percent. Every time neither adequate procurement is done nor fair price is given nor is there any arrangement for legal guarantee of support price. That is, in the last ten years, the Modi government has always kicked the farmers on their backs and stomachs.
Dubey said, Congress demands that farmers should get legal guarantee of minimum support price. The support price on soybean crop for farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh should be fixed at least Rs 6,000. The remaining amount should also be deposited in the accounts of those farmers who have sold their crops at a lower price than this. He said that Prime Minister Modi should pay attention that the announcement of minimum support price should not remain just a ritual.
–IANS
SCH/CBT
