M A I N   N E W S

Bonus issue draws flak
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23
The pressure to extend bonus to farmers who sold their wheat to private parties has started gaining momentum as the Rajya Sabha member, Dr Manohar Singh Gill, and the Federation of Aarhtiya (commission agents) Association of Punjab, decided to take up cudgels on their behalf.

Talking to The Tribune over the telephone, Dr Manohar Singh Gill, said though the decision to grant bonus to farmers was “welcome” but keeping 80 per cent of the produce out of its purview was “highly unjustified”.

“Why should a farmer be made to suffer for the failures of the state or its procurement agencies ?,” asked Mr Gill maintaining that he would take up the issue with the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, and the other agencies.

Though the Federation of Commission Agents held that private agencies purchased only six lakh tonnes of wheat and the average rate offered by them was about Rs 670 a quintal against the revised MSP of Rs 700 a quintal.

“The exact loss to farmers,” says Mr Bal Krishna Singla, president of the federation,” works out to be around Rs 18 crore. If the government pays Rs 18 crore to the affected farmers, there would be no heart burning.

“It would be prudent for the Punjab Chief Minister to consider this demand of the affected farmers sympathetically and extend the bonus facility to them as well,” Mr Singla added.

Both Dr Gill and Mr Singla maintained that it was “unfortunate that the government decided to exclude farmers who sold their produce to private parties from the purview of grant of special bonus.

Both held that it was because of the apathy and short-sightedness of the Union Government that had created an unsavoury situation and put the Punjab and Haryana farmers in a quandary.

“What was the justification of giving bonus to one section of farmers and denying the same to other section,” they asked holding that the Union Government should not have taken that long to decide about the bonus, especially when the reports of increased incidence of suicides among farmers were being highlighted in the media everyday.

“Why farmers be penalised for indecisiveness on the part of the government?,” asked Mr Gill holding that in all fairness the bonus should be given to each and every farmer who brought his produce to the authorised grain markets in the region.

Many farmer organisations have also disputed the claim of the federation that only six lakh tonnes of wheat were procured by private agencies. They said all wheat sold in grain markets since March 20 should be covered under the bonus package.