New Delhi, September 27
There is widespread consternation in both the Congress-ruled Punjab and the Opposition SAD with the Vajpayee government retaining the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy at Rs 530 per quintal.

In the continuing stand-off between the Congress and the SAD, the Union Cabinet at its meeting here last night refused to accede to the demand that the MSP should be hiked to offset the additional costs incurred by farmers due to partial drought, increased cost of diesel and other factors.

While Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh is believed to have kept his counsel to himself on increasing the MSP for paddy at the meeting of the Cabinet, it was left to Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Union Coal and Mines Minister Uma Bharti to underline the need for an increase in the MSP which went unheeded.

Just as the Congress, the SAD has no doubt that the Centre has hit the farmers hard.

Even as Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh maintains that his government had brought to the Centre’s notice the disastrous situation prevailing in the sensitive border state which contributes substantial foodgrain to the central pool, the SAD claims it has also not been found wanting in striving for remunerative prices for the highly burdened peasantry.

Capt Amarinder Singh has repeatedly said the state government has spent an additional sum of nearly Rs 6,000 crore to deal with the drought conditions.

In the ensuing political one-upmanship between the two warring parties in Punjab, the Centre fixed the MSP without any deviation from the recommendations of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices. That has pushed the Congress and the SAD in a tight corner though the former accuses the latter of influencing the decision of the Vajpayee government for adopting an as-is-where-is position.

The SAD accuses the Amarinder Singh government of failing to take all sections along in Punjab to pressure the Centre in fixing a remunerative price for paddy. This is refuted by the Congress leadership which charged the BJP-led NDA with indulging in brazen partisanship at the cost of farmers not only in Punjab but all over the country.

In a bid to put the record straight, the SAD is trying to secure a nominal bonus for the farmers which is expected to be taken up at the next meeting of the Cabinet.

SAD sources here said Mr Dhindsa had taken up the case of fixing a higher MSP for paddy and repeatedly drawn the attention of Mr Ajit Singh through demi-official letters dated August 26, September 19 and September 25.

In all three letters to the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Dhindsa emphasised that lakhs of farmers were facing uncertainty because of the delay in announcing the MSP. While some states could easily qualify for calamity relief as per the Centre’s existing guidelines, Punjab being an agriculturally advanced state with more dependence on underground water, faces a peculiar situation.

Mr Dhindsa said the farmers had spent additional amount on arranging diesel pumpsets to ensure that the crops did not wither due to deficient rain.

He said it would be appropriate to study this aspect in its totality with respect to states like Punjab so that the farmers were not made to suffer for their enterprise. “It is requested that a special package should be developed to compensate the farmers for the extra expenditure incurred by them for saving their crops,” Mr Dhindsa added in his letters.

Meanwhile, former chairman of the PPCC labour cell M.M.S. Cheema has demanded that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam should convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the drought conditions in the country and fixing the MSP.