The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday morning called on the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and sought a desperately needed liberal agricultural relief package for Punjab. The Chief Minister said that the country at large and Punjab in particular were sitting on the brink of a farm emergency due to a combination of natural and human factors. “The brave farmers of Punjab have always come to the rescue of the country and fellow countrymen in their hour of crises. It’s the turn of the country now to come to his rescue. And this will be in the larger national interest as it directly affects our food security.” Badal said that agriculture in the country is already in the throes of "one of the worst crises in recent history. The nation’s bread winner is today himself facing the prospect of hunger, poverty and back-breaking indebtedness." The Chief Minister sought a relief package to Rs.2380 crores for the drought hit Punjab farmers. Badal also called for putting in place a permanent, in-built rapid-response economic system to meet farm emergencies such as those caused by Monsoon failure, floods or other natural causes. The Chief Minister said that the Center should make use of the advanced technology and modern evaluation techniques to provide timely and adequate relief to farmers in the face of sudden crisis. Badal also referred to relief announced by the Center for some other states including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana adding said that leaving Punjab out of the ambit of this relief has caused widespread and profound anguish and resentment in the minds of the Punjab farmers. ”Unfortunately, this was not the first time that farmers of the country’s biggest contributor to national food kitty had been completely by-passed. Earlier also, the Center had by-passed Punjab while announcing a package of Rs. 70,000 crores for states affected by farm indebtedness and resultant suicides. The same story has been repeated by the Center now,” said Badal. The Chief Minister said that he found it hard to believe that the Center did not include the country’s largest producer of food-grains in its calculations for relief package. Badal, who called on Dr Manmohan Singh at the latter’s official Race Course residence, said that unless the farmers were helped in their hour of grave crises, the entire economy would take a big hit, seriously and adversely impacting all growth targets. "It is in overall national interest to come up with a bold and timely response to bail the farmers out of this crisis." Later, in a statement, the Chief Minister also made a strong plea for treating agriculture as a “special category and a priority sector” like the defense services. “The peasantry and the soldiery have always made unparalleled sacrifices for national security of border and food fronts. They must be accorded a special status in pursuance for the national slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan,” said the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister said that as the Center controlled practically every critical area of decision making on the farm sector, such as fixing of MSP as well as the prices of farm inputs like fertilizers, diesel, pesticides and weedicides, the onus of helping the farmer with a comprehensive and liberal package is on the government of India. States have no say in policy-formulation and decision making on any aspect concerning the present and future of agriculture.” The Chief Minister pointed out that there has been crippling 70% deficit in monsoon up to August 2 this year. "The country at large and Punjab and the North West region of the country are in the grip of one of the worst droughts since the 1960s. Badal apprised the forecast for the remaining stretch of the monsoon period holds out no hope for the Kharif season. The scanty rainfall had dealt a crushing blow to the peasantry in Punjab as it hit them at the Paddy sowing season," said Badal. The Chef Minister said that the treatment meted out to the leading agricultural state of the country has been shocking. "We have been seeking a comprehensive economic package to save the nation’s savior. Unfortunately, even the financial packages announced for farmers in the country have been denied the country’s leading agricultural state. All this has virtually broken the back of the agriculture and agriculturists in the state," said the Chief Minister. Badal hoped the Monsoon failure in the state could pose a serious threat to the overall food security of the country and said that because of this the farmers had to borne exorbitant expenditure to nurture and save their paddy crops from drying up and the country from an impending famine reminiscent of the days when India had to virtually beg for food in the comity of nations. He said that although Punjab had for long been advocating that the country’s bread winner, which has bailed the nation out of famines and the disgrace of the legacy of PL480, is himself driven to the brink of humiliation and even death. The farmers of Punjab had already sacrificed their most precious assets in terms of land fertility and water in the larger interests without asking for anything in return to be compensated for this huge personal loss just to make our country self reliant in food production. Giving details of the extra expenditure being incurred by the state government, the PSPL and the state farmer to fight the crises, the Chief Minister apprised Dr. Manmohan Singh that the 70% rainfall deficit means that the farmers would have to incur an additional expenditure for sustaining the paddy crop transplanted in about 27.80 lakh hectares and other Kharif crops like Cotton and Maize etc. by using diesel to run pump sets. The total extra expenditure to be incurred on this account will be approximately Rs.550 crores. Further, an additional expenditure of Rs.300 crores is likely to be incurred by the farmers for replacement of mono-block pump set operated tube-wells to submersible pump set operated deep tube-wells. A cumulative extra burden of Rs.850 crore was to be borne by the state farmers to save their crops. Apart from this, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PCPL) will incur an additional expenditure of Rs.1530 crore by perting power from other sectors as well as purchasing power at a higher price. Thus, additional cost on all these accounts will be Rs.2380 crores. The farmers and the state government were already engaged in a massive effort to save the nation from any threat to its food security, said Badal. The PSPCL too was making all out efforts to ensure that the nation’s fixed targets of food production were achieved at all costs by extending all possible help to the peasantry in this critical juncture. All this has put up an unbearable strain on our economy. Badal urged Dr. Manmohan Singh seeking his direct intervention to bail out the farmers and the PSPCL in one the worst hours of crisis through immediately announcing a comprehensive economic package in the larger national interest.