Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today issued an ultimatum to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to procure the entire ‘moong’ crop arriving in State ‘mandis’ at the promised minimum support price (msp) as well as compensate farmers for the loss suffered in selling short to private players by July 10.
Telling the chief minister to fulfill the promise made to the farmers, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “we want a clear cut directive to the State agencies to purchase all moong arriving in State mandis as per the msp. We also want the government to compensate farmers for the losses suffered by them in selling their produce to private players. This can be done through the Bhavantar Scheme which is being implemented by Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
In case the government does not do this, the SAD is committed to launching an agitation programme to secure justice for the farmers of the State”. He said a decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the party’s core committee yesterday.
In a statement here, the SAD president while holding chief minister Bhagwant Mann squarely responsible for the financial losses being faced by farmers in addition to the harassment they were undergoing said “the chief minister has betrayed the farming community by reneging on his promise to purchase the entire moong crop at an msp f Rs 7,275 per quintal. The State government has purchased less than ten per cent of the entire crop which has arrived in the State mandis even as moong continues to arrive in mandis in the Malwa region”.
Giving further details, Mr Sukhbir Badal said against a total arrival of Rs 1.35 lakh quintal of moong, State agencies had purchased only 13,800 quintal even as the remaining 1.20 lakh quintals had been purchased by private players at prices between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per quintal against the msp of Rs 7,275. “This has not only caused a huge loss to farmers who increased the acreage of moong by 55,000 acres this year at the instance of the chief minister, but will also derail the State’s plan to encourage farmers to sow later varieties of paddy to save ground water depletion”.
Stating that farmers were being harassed in mandis, Mr Badal said during his interaction with farmers at Jagraon he came to know that they were asked to produce ‘fards’ of their land and were told that they would be given payment in three installments with the last installment being released when the Agricultural Development Officer (ADO) submitted that they had sowed the late variety of paddy in their fields.
He said besides this several conditions of moisture, discolouration and cleanliness were being imposed despite the fact that the government had not provided cleaning facilities in mandis. He said all this had led to utter chaos and harassment of farmers with only 2,400 quintals out of the one lakh quintal of moong arriving at Jagraon being procured.
The SAD president said the chief minister should also apologize to the farming community for playing with their emotions in the same manner as done by former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh who promised a complete loan waiver but put several conditions to defeat the purpose of the scheme. He said Mr Bhagwant Mann had cheated farmers in the same manner and had compounded the betrayal by deriving cheap publicity by hard-selling the “initiative” through multi-crore advertisements. EOM
Jangveer Singh
