New Delhi, 22 Oct, 2024 (Daljeet Kaur)
Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) expresses its deep concern on the precarious situation of the paddy procurement crisis in Punjab and Haryana in the context of the FCI failing to lift the last season’s paddy stock from warehouses and Rice Mills. Though Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann assured action within two days, as per reports limited progress is there in expediting procurement.
SKM accuses the BJP led NDA Government and its pro-corporate policies as responsible for derailed paddy procurement in Punjab and Haryana. Finance Minister Niramala Sitaraman has curtailed the food and fertiliser subsidy in the Union Budget 2022-23 and 2023-24 and continuing the same in 2024-25 also to a whopping accumulated sum of Rs. 67552 Cr in food subsidy and Rs. 87339 Cr in Fertiliser subsidy.
In the Union Budget 2022-23 (actuals) the food subsidy was Rs. 272802 Cr. In the Budget 2023-24 (Revised) the expenditure made was only 2, 12,332 Cr means less by Rs. 60, 470 Cr. In the 2024-25 Budget the subsidy estimated is Rs. 2, 05,250 Cr., means further reduced by Rs.7082 Cr.
Similarly the Fertiliser Subsidy also has been slashed substantially. In the Union Budget 2022-23 (actuals) the fertiliser subsidy was Rs. 2, 51, 339 Cr. and in the Budget 2023-24 (Revised) the expenditure made was only 1, 88, 894 Cr that was less by 62,445 CR. As per the 2024-25 Budget estimate the fertiliser subsidy is Rs. 1, 64, 000 Cr means further less by Rs.24, 894 Cr.
In the background of the failure of the FCI in lifting the paddy stock procured in the last season from Punjab and Haryana, SKM demands Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to explain the people why she has adopted such a policy of curtailing the food subsidy to the poor people and fertiliser subsidy to the farmers in such drastic measures.
BJP ruled States are systematically implementing Direct Benefit Transfer – DBT scheme of cash transfer to bank accounts of the beneficiaries under Public Distribution Scheme -PDS- by changing the Rules of Food Security Act 2013.
For example in Maharashtra, the State Government has converted 32 lakh ration cards in cash transfer and stopped lifting rice and grains from Food Corporation of India-FCI. In Karnataka, despite severe drought, the Union Government did not provide rice though the State Government demanded food grain.
NAFED and other Public Sector agencies also deliberately kept their procurement process out of APMC system and through a chain of private players belonging to the corporate sector. Prime Minister Modi has lifted the ban on export of non-Basmati rice in the interests of the corporate houses.
All these measures are part of corporatizing the food sector and will have larger consequences on the food security and petty production that will detrimentally affect the interests of the people especially the poor, the small and middle farmers, tenant farmers and agricultural workers. We shall learn a lesson from Africa where in many countries the scarcity of food due to corporate control on the food industry has led to riots and civil wars.
The Union Government has dismantled the Central Warehousing Corporation –CWC- that resulted in large scale reduction in storage facilities in the public sector. FCI also has rented out its storage facilities to the corporate sector to companies including Adani and Ambani.
World Trade Organisition-WTO is attacking the PDS and support price mechanism of MSP for food grains. The BJP govt has deliberately compromised interest of Indian farmers and people by admitting such stipulations regarding MSP and PDS with the corporate logic of they distort market and corporate profitteering.
FCI did not manage necessary capacity for the current season paddy procurement due to all these pro-corporate policies.
SKM strongly accuses the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for surrendering to the Big Business and Multinational Corporations and the Imperialist countries like the United States of America to dismantle the Public Distribution System and the limited MSP based procurement system through the APMC markets that covers only 10% of the production.
SKM strongly criticises the role of Bhagwant Mann Government of Punjab and Nayab Singh Saini Government of Haryana for failing to put pressure on the Union Government to ensure timely lifting of paddy stock from the warehouses and rice mills, avoiding the present crisis and protect the interests of the farmers. The derailed procurement will create unrest among farmers and will frustrate all sections related with the APMC system of procurement.
According to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), only 56% of Indians reported eating three meals a day. Another study has revealed India has the largest number of – 67 lakh, zero–food children. In India, alarming levels of stunting (35%) and wasting (19%) among children and anaemia among women (57%) and children (67%) have been reported in the National Family Health survey – NFHS-5 of 2019-21.
At a time when issues of food insecurity and malnutrition ought to be treated as a national crisis and the Union Government should be expanding the food security net and enhancing the food basket, the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister betray the most marginalised who are living with hunger and malnutrition and assault on the farmers, the food producers.
In this context, SKM appeals to the farmers and workers across the country to stand in solidarity with the farmers of Punjab and Haryana in the path of struggle to protect the APMC system and the food security of the country to prevent the corporate takeover of the food industry.
 expresses its deep concern on the precarious situation of the paddy procurement crisis in Punjab and Haryana in the context of the FCI failing to lift the last season’s paddy stock from warehouses and Rice Mills. Though Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann assured action within two days, as per reports limited progress is there in expediting procurement.){kind=link}