The Aman Sandesh Times

Thursday, Date: Mar 28, 2024 Time: 7:00 pm

E-Paper

Mohali: MSP panel constituted by the government of India is merely an eye wash but nothing has been done to benefit the farmers stated farmer leader Ravneet Brar.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha gave suspension of business notice and demanded discussion on the committee on MSP constituted by the Government of India.
Punjab kept out of central committee on agriculture; farmer leaders cry foul, absence of Punjab institutions and state government representatives from the Central government’s Committee on Agriculture issues and making Minimum Support Price more effective has raised the hackles in Punjab.
The committee has been constituted after the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November last year, while withdrawing the three contentious farm laws. Farmers from Punjab had spearheaded the struggle to seek withdrawal of these laws that had led to a year-long dharna on the outskirts of Delhi.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders, had also out rightly rejected the committee last evening.
Punjab Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha said the Centre’s committee to make MSP more effective is the latest example of the BJP’s cynical and shortsighted bungling on agriculture, as the dispensation “learnt no lessons”. “By deliberately excluding Punjab, the Centre has insulted our people. Punjab as the birthplace of the Green Revolution and the food bowl of India has not been allowed to have governmental representation, while bureaucrats from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha have all been given spots in the committee,” Chaddha said.

Farmer leader Ravneet Brar said “The chairman of the committee is the same person who had conceptualised the three farm laws, and advocated for them till the very end.
Though the Prime Minister had announced that a committee would be formed in November last year, it was not notified and we feared that the committee would have representation from amongst those who would not be able to withstand government pressure, and succumb to their desires,” they said.
Presently only three members of the SKM have been included in the committee, and five of the farmer leaders who had sided with the government on the issue of farm laws had been made its members.
Among farmer representatives, the committee will have National award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, three members from SKM, and five members from other farmer organisations include Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel.
Two members of the farmers’ Cooperative and group include IFFCO Chairman Dilip Sanghani and CNRI General Secretary Binod Anand are also part of the committee.
Senior members of agricultural universities, five central government secretaries and chief secretaries of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha are also part of the committee.
It is pertinent to mention here that, the Committee was constituted last week, but its notification was issued on Monday but, no one from Punjab figures on the committee list.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *