BJP government ruin farmers.

Chandigarh, (Gurpreet) – President, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Kumari Selja said that the BJP government was leaving no stone unturned to ruin the farmers. Amid Corona epidemic, a new chapter has been written by the BJP government to ruin the farmers. The central government had recently come up with three new ordinances, which will allow some of the government's favorite capitalists to have a free hand to loot and farmers will depend on these capitalists to sell their crops. Through these laws, the government was promoting private sector in farming, which was another conspiracy of this government against the farmers.

Kumari Selja was addressing a video press conference here today.

She said that three ordinances have been recently introduced by the central government. Earlier every trader could buy crops only from the mandi, but now according to the new ordinance, the trader will be allowed to buy crops from outside the mandi. This will eliminate both competition in the market and Minimum Support Price for the crop. This law will affect functioning of mandis in Haryana. At the same time, the crops of the farmers will be sold in the market at one-third price, due to which the farmers will suffer a huge loss. There are 85 per cent small scale farmers in India, whose annual yields were not so high that they can go to the nearby mandis every time to sell their crops. In such a situation, it will not be less than a joke to ask farmers to sell their crop in the mandi of another state. Even if a farmer reaches another state to sell his crop, what was the guarantee that he will get such a good price for the crop that the entire cost including the freight and transportation charges will be covered under it, she asked?

Kumari Selja said that under the second ordinance 'The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance', grains, pulses, food, oil, onions, potatoes etc have been taken out of the Essential Commodities Act and their stock limit has been abolished. This will lead to excessive stock and black marketing of these items and these will be sold at expensive prices.

In the third ordinance, a conspiracy has been hatched to end the existence of farmers through contract farming. Through this law, contract based farming has been legalized, so that big capitalists and companies can do contract based farming. Under this, the farmer will be forced to do farming with the capitalists, which will end the existence of farmers. Farmers will have to produce crops according to the needs and whatever the capitalists and companies will cultivate. If this happens, farmers will have to depend on them for everything from seed and fertilizer to selling crops. The prices of crops, when their crops will be purchased, when the payment will be made, everything will be in the hands of the company or the capitalist and the farmers will remain as laborers on their own land.

Kumari Selja said that these ordinances have been brought as a part of conspiracy by the government whereas farmers were already suffering due to the anit-farmer policies of this government. Crops of farmers were not purchased at Minimum Support Price and fraud was being committed in crop purchases. Farmers were not even compensated for crop damage. Farmers were harassed time and again by taking anti-farmer decisions. Diesel prices were increasing unevenly and now this ordinance of the government was a decision to ruin the farmers.

While cornering the State Government for expensive crop insurance in Haryana, Kumari Selja said that now insurance under crop insurance scheme has also become expensive which will directly hit the farmers. The premium of cotton has been increased to almost two-and-a-half times. Earlier, where the premium amount for cotton was Rs 620 per acre, now it has been increased to Rs 1650. In this way, insurance of cotton per acre has increased to Rs 1030. At the same time, the insurance amount on paddy was Rs 630 per acre and it has now been increased to Rs 680 per acre. Similarly, the premium amount of other crops has also been increased. This is due to withdrawal of subsidy of its share given by Haryana Government in crop insurance scheme. This increase under the Crop Insurance Scheme was another proof of the government's anti-farmer stance. In this way the government will double the farmers’ income, she questioned? Kumari Selja said that despite all the claims of the government, the series of suicides of debt-ridden farmers continues. The government has been continuously misleading farmers and playing with policy and structural agrarian reforms, hollow slogans and claims, doubling farmers' income, zero budget farming, etc due to which the farmer has reached the verge of complete destruction. Kumari Selja said that these new ordinances protect the interests of a particular class and these ordinances were purely against the farmers. These three ordinances should be withdrawn immediately and the whole system should be restored as was being practiced earlier. Apart from this, the increased premium amount under crop insurance scheme should also be withdrawn immediately, she added.