Modi govt’s wrong policies responsible for farmers’ plight: Congress
The Congress on Monday alleged that the Modi government’s “wrong policies” are responsible for the plight of farmers who are “not getting even the cost of their produce”.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed that as per rates on the government agency ‘Agmarknet’, farmers are not getting the minimum support price for their crop.
“The Modi government’s wrong policies are responsible for ignoring the farmers. How will their income double by 2022, when far from giving them ‘cost + 50% profit’, the farmer is not even getting the ‘cost’ of the crop,” he said in a statement.
He cited data available on ‘Agmarknet’ to say that farmers are not getting the minimum support price on Kharif crops.
“With this, the anti-farmer face of the Modi government has been exposed in front of everyone and it has been clearly proved that the promise of doubling the income of farmers by the year 2022 is just an election gimmick to mislead the country’s Annadata and get their votes. It has nothing to do with the truth,” Surjewala claimed.
He also claimed that in the last 25 days, the market price received by the farmers of the country from their crops is much less than the minimum support price and the cost of crops.
He said farmers across the country are agitating and opposition parties are also standing firmly in their support, but they are still facing “injustice”.
“When the Modi government is deliberately reducing the purchase of crops at MSP as part of a conspiracy, then what is the benefit of fixing the MSP?”
“Based on experience of the last seven years, it becomes clear that the Modi government believes less in work and more in making headlines. The truth is that under a well-thought-out conspiracy, the Modi government is continuously reducing the purchase of crops on MSP, so that gradually the MSP will end on its own,” he alleged.
If the government does not buy at the minimum support price, then the market price will fall and the farmer will be left with no option but to sell it below the cost, he said. “This is happening now.”
Surjewala said the Modi government bought 389.93 lakh tonnes of wheat at MSP in 2020-21, but in the current year till April 30, 2021 (in the year 2021-22), the quantity of wheat procured at MSP has been reduced to 271 lakh tonnes.
Resultantly, in the current year 2021-22, 118.93 lakh tonnes of less wheat was bought at MSP than last year 2020-21, he said.
The Congress leader claimed that in 2019-20, 519.97 lakh tonnes of paddy was purchased at MSP, but in 2020-21, the Modi government bought only 481.41 lakh tonnes of money on MSP to weaken the MSP, which was 38.56 lakh tonnes less.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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