Out rightly rejecting the proposal of CAPC to freeze the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of wheat and in addition Rs.40 per quintal as bonus on it during Rabi 2013-14, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today slammed the Congress led UPA government for its anti-farmer stance and immediately demanded the MSP of wheat to be fixed at Rs.1800 per quintal against the last year Rs.1285. In a statement, the Chief Minister said that the apathetic attitude of Congress led UPA government towards peasantry stood exposed by this decision, which would have far reaching repercussions on the farming community that was already reeling under heavy debt due to the wrong policies of the Union government. Mr. Badal categorically said that the ostensible move of Centre to give Rs 40 per quintal bonus to the farmers on wheat amounted to rubbing salt into their wounds rather than bailing them out in this hour of crisis. He further said that Congress should have rewarded the farmers especially of Punjab for their major contribution in making country self-reliant in the food grain production at the expanse of their only two precious resources i.e. water and soil. He bemoaned that the Congress was habitual of shedding crocodile tears on the issues pertaining to the farmers and denial of adequate hike in MSP on Wheat despite assurance from the Union Agriculture Minister was a testimony to this fact.
Making a scathing attack on the UPA government, the Chief Minister said that before taking such irrational decisions the leaders of UPA government must have looked at the entire agriculture scenario in a holistic manner and should have searched their conscience sincerely to ascertain who was responsible for this entire imbroglio pushing the beleaguered peasantry of the state on the brink of economic disaster by recklessly hiking the cost of agricultural inputs. Mr. Badal said that the UPA leaders owe an explanation to the farmers regarding the ever widening gap between the agricultural costs of inputs and squeezed margin of profit due to stagnated MSP to the farmers in their regime since 2004. He reiterated that denial of hike in MSP on wheat spoke volumes of Congress led UPA government’s complete insensitivity and anti-farmer tough posture adopted by it thereby accentuating their woes. Mr. Badal asked the Centre to be honest and fair while deciding the issues relating to peasantry rather than politicking them.Training his guns against the Congress led UPA government, the Chief Minister said that the denial of hike in MSP on Wheat at a time when the prices of the agricultural inputs, especially the DAP and Urea had touched the sky attributed Centre’s deliberate approach to wean away the farmers from the agriculture profession which was no more a profitable proposition now due to its anti-farmer policies. Mr. Badal said that as per an estimate the escalated prices of agriculture inputs had put an additional burden of Rs 1000 crore on the beleaguered peasantry.Reiterating his demand to fix the MSP of wheat at Rs 1800 per quintal to offset the recent massive increase in the farm inputs, the Chief Minister said that the MSP of Rs.1285/- per quintal on wheat for the current Rabi marketing season was much below the expectations of the farmers, which would further slow down the agricultural growth.
Justifying the rationale behind the demand of Rs.1800 per quintal as MSP of wheat, Mr. Badal said that it was a paradoxical situation that the country had been importing wheat from Australia at much higher price than this and there was hardly any justification to deprive the local producers of the same price. He cautioned the Union government to desist from these anti-peasant policies lest they would jeopardise the country’s food security thereby putting the entire farming community especially that of Punjab in quandary. He asked the Centre to implement Dr MS Swaminathan’s formula to hike MSP by providing a margin of 50% over the cost of production to the farmers to ensure remunerative prices of their produce to them rather than recklessly importing wheat at much higher prices.