Harsimrat K Badal urges union agri minister to guarantee msp for agri crops as per recommendations of Swaminathan Commission

Punjab News: Former union minister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged union agriculture minister Narinder Singh Tomar to guarantee minimum support price (msp) for agriculture crops on the cost plus fifty percent profit formula suggested by the Swaminathan Commission besides asking him to fulfill all promises made to the Sanyukt Kisaan Morcha (SKM) when it lifted its ‘andolan’ against the three black laws in November, 2021.

In a letter to the union agriculture minister, the Bathinda MP said it was unfortunate that the issues which the union government committed to resolve when farmers lifted their blockade of Delhi after the three contentious laws were repealed by Prime Minister Narindra Modi, were still lying in cold storage since the last eighteen months.

Urging the agriculture minister to resolve all issues as per the commitment made to the ‘annadaata’, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said “msp regime should be given legal sanctity and for this to take place the government should revise the terms and objectives of the MSP Committee formed by it as well as recast it to include members of the SKM. The terms of the Committee should be as per the commitment made by the government – to guarantee msp”.

Taking up other issues raised by SKM in a memorandum submitted to the Bathinda MP which she also forwarded to the agriculture minister, Mrs Badal said “it is a fact that farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their produce due to rising costs of inputs. This is forcing farmers into a debt trap which is the cause of the increase in suicides in the farming community”.

She said to rectify this situation farmers should be given a universal farm loan debt waiver.

Listing out other causes for friction with the farming community, Mrs Badal said “there is a universal feeling in the farming community that justice has not been done in the Lakhimpuri case in which union minister for state Ajay Mishra’s son crushed innocent farmers under his SUV. Neither has the minister been removed from the cabinet nor the cases registered against the innocent farmers have been withdrawn till yet”. She said appropriate action recognizing the wrong done to the innocent farmers and removal of the union minister of state from the cabinet would assuage the hurt feelings of farmers.

The Bathinda MP said farmers also wanted immediate withdrawal of the Electricity Reforms Bill 2022. She said a written assurance to this effect was given to the SKM on December 9, 2021 stating that the bill would only be introduced in parliament after thorough consultation with the farming community.“This was however not done”.

Mrs Badal also called for a comprehensive and prudent Fasal Bima Yojana which ensured full compensation for all crops damaged by drought, floods, thunderstorm, and diseases. She also urged the agriculture minister that all marginal and small men and women farmers and farm labourers be granted a pension of Rs.10, 000 per month. She also called for withdrawal of all cases registered against farmers in BJP-ruled States, disbursal of compensation and construction of a memorial for all 800 farmers who were martyred during the course of the Kisaan Andolan.