Chandigarh, September 22
While on the directive of the party high command, most of the Congress MLAs, Ministers and MPs from Punjab today rushed to Delhi to build pressure on the Union Government to announce minimum support price (MSP) of paddy for the current year, a number of farmer’s organisations will start an agitation here tomorrow on this issue.
The other issue is to urge the Union Government to direct procurement agencies to start the procurement of paddy with immediate effect. The government has fixed October 1 to start the procurement.
Informed Congress sources said the party high command had directed all Congress MLAs, MPs and Ministers from Punjab to project the paddy issue in a big way before the Union Government tomorrow. Senior party leaders led by the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the President of the Punjab unit, Mr H.S. Hanspal, and Mrs Ambika Soni, would meet the Deputy Prime Minister, the Food Minister, and the Agriculture Minister tomorrow on the MSP and procurement issue.
Opposition parties especially the SAD led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, have repeatedly attacked the Capt Amarinder Singh’s Government for not taking the MSP issue with the Union Government in a right earnest. Mr Badal had said the states concerned had to lobby hard to get the MSP enhanced from the Union Government. The Chief Ministers concerned had to camp in Delhi for this purpose for days together for mobilising the support to get the MSP revised as several anti-MSP lobbies had also become active at the time of paddy harvesting season.
However, the Punjab Government has not taken any visible step in this connection except writing letters and issuing threats to start an agitation in this connection so far. Most of the Congress leaders had been busy elsewhere instead of doing something worthwhile on the MSP front. In fact, the ruling party had started blaming the opposition leader, Mr Badal, for delay in the announcement of the MSP by the Union Government.
Political observers say the ruling party in Punjab has now started feeling the heat on the MSP issue. Even political parties which supported the Congress on a number of issues have also started criticising it for not taking the proper initiative. Dr Joginder Dayal, Secretary of the Punjab unit of the CPI, had urged the Chief Minister to lead an all-party delegation to the Capital on the paddy procurement and MSP issue.
Source said to increase the MSP was a political compulsion of the BJP, which would start a “ gaon chalo” campaign from September 25 all over the country. Without announcing the increase in the MSP, BJP leaders could not dare to enter in the rural areas in Punjab and Haryana where the farming community was aggressive as well as sensitive on issues directly related to its age-old profession of agriculture. Moreover, as the BJP had also set its party machinery in motion for the next Lok Sabha elections, it would like to offer sops to all sections of society, especially the farming community, which had a big vote-bank.
