Farmers Movement Archive

Centre plans to end MSP, ruin Punjab’s farm economy: Jakhar

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Tuesday alleged that by bringing in the three farm ordinances, BJP at the Centre has planned to put an end to the minimum support price (MSP) regime. At a meeting with party MLAs, Jakhar said with the move, the arthiyas (commission agents) will be dumped and rural markers will be shut. “The BJP’s long strategy to destroy Punjab’s farm sector was hidden behind the amendments in the marketing laws,” he said, adding that Congress leaders will take the campaign to oppose the ordinances to the villages of the state. “The farmers will now be at the mercy of the big corporate and the mandi system will be abolished. It will deprive Punjab of the marketing fee that will, in turn, affect development of rural infrastructure in the state. The network of village roads had been created through market fee and rural development fund,” he added. Jakhar claimed that the Modi government had brought the ordinances as per the recommendations of the Shanta Kumar Committee and the aim was to eventually close down the Food Corporation of India (FCI). On the same lines, he said, the Centre planned to procure food grains from states only as per the quantity required for the public distribution system. “If this happens then out of 127 lakh tonnes of wheat produce in Punjab, only 8 lakh tonnes would be procured by the government,” he claimed. He said party leaders will go around their constituencies to make people at the grassroots aware of the implications of the farm ordinances.

The Times of India

2020-06-25

Chandigarh