Farmers Movement Archive

Haryana: Farmers protest in Saha, seek maize procurement

AMBALA: The Bhartiya Kisan Union’s Haryana unit staged a protest outside the office of grain market committee secretary in Saha town near here on Tuesday, demanding procurement of the rabi (winter) season maize on MSP. A large number of farmers participated in the protested and raised anti-government slogans. While the protesters complied with the rule of wearing masks to contain the spread of Covid-19, social distancing was not followed at the protest. A BKU spokesperson said the government was asking farmers to shift to maize from paddy under its crop diversification scheme to save groundwater, but farmers were not even getting deserving prices for maize. “The government must ensure procurement of entire maize produce on MSP, whether it is sown in rabi or kharif season, so that farmers can adopt crop diversification with a sense of security,” said the spokesperson. During the protest meeting, BKU passed a resolution against the Haryana government and submitted a memorandum of demands addressed to the CM to Ambala Cantonment SDM Subhash Sihag. In the memorandum, the BKU stated: “The government has promised time and again to procure maize, therefore, the farmers cultivated the crop on a large scale. But the government is not procuring maize on MSP. For maize, the farmers get Rs 1,760 per quintal under MSP, whereas the crop fetches only Rs 1,200 in the private market, which is a loss of around Rs 560 per quintal.

The Times of India

2020-06-17

Gurgaon