BJP government has committed itself to act against the interests of farmers- Shelja

New Delhi,(Global News) : “BJP government has committed itself to act against the interests of farmers”, said Kumar Selja, president congress committee Haryana. She accused BJP of making policies detrimental to the interests of farmers while the same are in favour of a handful of private companies. She said that the ruling government has already passed three ordinances to deprive of the farmers of their natural rights. Now it is planning to present Pesticides management bill-2020 that would ruin the farmers and the businessman that are working at small level. Selja said that the government is prepared to pass this ordinance in the parliament session starting on 14th September. However, neither the farmers nor the farmer associations have been taken in confidence before proposing the ordinance that would be hampering their interests. She said that farmers are actually the spine of our economy but they are not apprised of the policies that are being framed regarding their impacts. She said that even the political parties are not made a part of discussion before proposing such ordinance. This creates suspicion on the intention of the government. The state president of Congress raised the demand that the proposed ordinance should be submitted on the floor of the parliament for discussion. Whatever new suggestions are proposed during the discussion, should be incorporated in the bill. She said that whatever concerns are being raised by the farmers and the small businessmen have to be discussed and ruled out. Necessary changes should be made in the bill to take care of the concerns of all the stake holders. Selja made a special reference of the recommendations made by Ashok Dalwai Committee in 2018. The committee was constituted to propose steps for promotion of domestic industries and to promote exports of agree products. None of these recommendations are being incorporated in the proposed bill, said Selja. Instead, she said, the bill is drafted in a way to promote imports. The bill that is being proposed would adversely affect the financial interests of farmers. Selja said accused the government that the imported pesticides, that were available to the farmers at Rs.10,000 per kg till few days ago, the price of which was reduced to Rs.3500 per kg. However, with this bill promoting imports, would be raising the cost of the same pesticides for the farmers once again. On the one hand the government is showing a lolly pop to farmers to double their income by 2022 and on the other making policies to adversely affect the income of the farmers. Selja said that apart from the financial impact on the farmers, the bill would also be promoting ‘inspector raj’. The bill proposes re-registration of the companies in the draft pesticides management bill 2020 that are already registered under the Insecticides Act 1968. The registration committee in the proposed bill has been empowered to reject any of the applications of the pesticides manufacturing companies seeking registration in the new Pesticides management bill 2020. This would not only increase the corruption but would also lead to the small Indian manufactures of pesticides not getting an advantage. This would also lead to delay in availability of pesticides to the farmers at the time of need. Also, no provision has been made in the bill to help the farmers at the time of emergency such as attack of locust. She said that the organisation of pesticides manufacturers of India has also opposed the provisions in the draft bill. Selja accused the ruling BJP government of unveiling its ugly face of anti-farmer party. The government has already taken step make the interests of the farmers hostage with the big companies, it is still acting against the interests of the farmers. She said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introduced the system of paying minimum support price to the farmers which the current government is trying to abolish and make the farmers hand to mouth. She said that the Congress would oppose the proposed bill at every level. For this the party workers will protest on roads to stop the government depriving the farmers of their rights.