Chandigarh, December 13, 2022 (Yes Punjab News)
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said far from doubling farmer income as promised, the union government had presided over the doubling of the input costs of farmers even as Minimum Support Price (MSP) on food grains was hiked by two to five per cent annually during the last eight years.
Speaking in parliament, Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal was very emphatic while asking how much of the additional spending of Rs four lakh crore grant being sought by the government would reach the farmers. Asserting that farmers wanted to be ‘atamnirbhar’ and did not want to live on doles, the Bathinda MP said “what is needed is guaranteed crop procurement on MSP as well as fixation of MSP as per the Swaminathan formula to ensure a fifty per cent profit to farmers on the total cost of production of a crop”.
She said the first step in this direction was reconstitution of the MSP Committee as per the written assurance given to agitating farmers when they lifted their Andolan one year back. “The government should also make MSP a legal right as promised to farmers to ensure its aim of doubling farmer income can be achieved”.
Giving facts, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said while the price of diesel had almost doubled during the last eight years, the prices of fertilizers like Urea had increased from Rs 175 per 50 kilogram bag to Rs 270 for a 45 kilogram bag. She said similarly the price of DAP had increased from Rs 1125 per bag to Rs 1350 per bag. She also detailed how pesticides and seeds were attracting a GST of 18 and 12 per cent respectively and tractors that of 28 per cent.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader also spoke on how Punjab was being discriminated against. She said an attempt was being made to snatch away the river waters of the State bypassing the Riparian Principle which gave Punjab exclusive rights over its River waters. “A sinister conspiracy has also been unleashed to dilute Punjab’s right over Chandigarh as its State capital”. She said this was being done despite the fact that the central government had reiterated Punjab’s right over Chandigarh in 1970 and the Rajiv – Longowal accord had also been ratified by parliament.
Mrs Badal said it was unfortunate that Punjab, which had suffered during Congress rule at the centre, was now again suffering under the present dispensation. She also made a fervent appeal for the release of Sikh detainees incarcerated in prisons even after completion of their life terms.
She said it was unfortunate that despite a written order declaring the commutation of life sentences of all Sikh detainees as well as commutation of the death sentence of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana during the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji, they had still not been released. She said in stark contrast Bilkis Bano rapists had been released which had sent a wrong message to the Sikh community.
Meanwhile, Mrs Badal also requested finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase GST on government advertisements while detailing how the AAP government in Punjab had increased advertisement expenditure from Rs 20 crore per annum to Rs 750 crore. “Much of this has been spent to contest assembly elections in Himachal and Gujarat”, the MP disclosed while calling for a stop to such misuse of the public exchequer.
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