Fatehgarh Sahib, May 20
If the Central Government withdraws from the procurement of agricultural produce and transfers procurement to states, the SAD (B) will oppose it, warned Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Finance Minister of Punjab, while addressing a state-level agriculture technocrats kisan rally here yesterday.
He said surplus stated would be badly affected with this decision and it would create marketing problems, affecting the economy of the states. He said the Central
Government could not evade its responsibility of procurement and it had to purchase the produce from farmers at the MSP. He said keeping in mind the effects of the WTO, the Centre should form a marketing policy.
Advocating direct subsidy to farmers, he said European farmers got direct subsidy and that was the reason they were capable of competing worldwide. He said to save the interests of producers and consumers, two types of support prices should be fixed — one for the producers and the other for the consumers.
Citing an example, he said to provide better rates, farmers’ produce should be purchased at MSP of Rs 400 and they should be provided Rs 225 as direct subsidy. He further said the government should provide the produce to the consumer at Rs 400. He said the government was spending crores on subsidy, but it was in an indirect manner, like subsidy on fertiliser and diesel.
Appreciating the efforts of the technocrats and the farmers for increasing the yield in the state from 65 lakh metric tonnes to 1.10 crore metric tonnes during the four-year tenure of the government, the minister said all genuine demands of the agriculture technocrats would be met soon and he asked them to come to Chandigarh next week to discuss their demands.
All organisations of farmers and agriculture technocrats, in a resolution, demanded that the decision taken by the Chief Minister on December 8,2000, to cancel the anti-farm technocrats, notification November 28, 2000, which was being delayed by anti-farm sector forces and for which there was anguish and unrest, should be implemented without delay.
