Farmers Movement Archive

Assure procurement of crops at MSP by state govt if Centre falters, demands SAD

Stressing that a lot still needs to be done to secure the future of Punjab’s farmers, the Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) on Tuesday sought an assurance from chief minister Amarinder Singh that the state government will procure crops at Minimum Support Price(MSP)even if the Centre falters.The party’s statement has come in the wake of the State Assembly passing four Bills and adopting a resolution against the Centre’s contentious farm laws. The SAD and the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) backed the Bills in the assembly while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has two MLAs in the state, stayed away from the special session called against the farm laws.Commenting on the passage of the Bills, SAD leaders claimed that the Congress government brought these after an ultimatum by farmers.“Still a lot needs to be done to secure the future of Punjab farmers,” said SAD legislature party leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon.The SAD leaders said their legislators were ready to resign en masse to ensure that the Centre gives the state its due. “The fight to secure justice for the ‘kisan’, ‘khet mazdoor’ and ‘arhtiyas’ (farmers, farm labourers and commission agents) as well as three crore Punjabis has just started,” Dhillon added. “Now, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh must give a categorical assurance that the state government will procure all crops, including wheat, paddy, cotton, and maize, at the minimum support price (MSP) if the Centre defaults on the same,” Dhillon said. Dhillon, along with senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, said, “It is now clear that the Congress government, which was running away from calling a special session, was forced to do so due to an ultimatum served on it by farmers.”Majithia said even as all parties presented a united stand in the fight against the Centre, it was unfortunate that the Congress government did not share the proposed Bills with all stakeholders, including farmers and legislators before the House was convened. He said it would have been better had the government passed a Bill under the agriculture head by moving to make the entire state a single principal market yard to negate the implementation of the Centre’s farm laws. “Any such Bill would have received both the Governor’s as well as the Presidential nod for being a state subject. A huge opportunity has been missed,” Majithia claimed. Leader of Opposition Harpal Cheema, whose party AAP had backed the Bills, later in a statement said, “The Punjab government is fooling people of the state”. He said they had been demanding that copies of the Bills to be brought by the government in the assembly should be given to legislators in advance but since these were tabled at the last moment, they did not have enough time to go through these. Cheema said after the Assembly proceedings for the day got over, they sought opinion about the state Bills from farmer leaders, legal experts and intellectuals. He said the question which arose was “can any state government negate the laws passed by Parliament”, and if not, then why is the state government fooling people, he asked. Meanwhile, farmers organisations decided to meet on Wednesday to chalk out the future course of action. Representatives of 30 farmers’ organisations will be meeting to decide the future course of action, Darshan Pal, member of their coordination committee told PTI. On the bills passed by the state Assembly, he said, “It remains to be seen whether the governor will give approval to the Bills passed by the state assembly.” He said while they would like the Union government to repeal or amend the farm laws, it was heartening that entire Punjab, including its people, political leaders and farmers were speaking in one voice. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday again appealed to farmers to call off their “rail roko” agitation to allow the transportation of coal, urea and foodgrain.

Hindustan Times

21-10-2020

India