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The Union government should bring in an ordinance to legally guarantee minimum support prices (MSP) for crops, the leaders of two farm groups spearheading a new agitation said on Saturday, a day before they are to hold talks with a ministerial delegation for the fourth time over their demands.
Latest stories on farmers’ protest here
The latest appeal came on the fifth day of a stand-off that began when a caravan of thousands of farmers in trucks, tractors and cars set off for the national capital from Punjab before they were stopped from crossing into Haryana, where police fired teargas shells and laid down rows of concrete, metal and spike barriers earlier last week.
“If the government wants resolution of farmers’ protest, then it should bring an ordinance with an immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP, then discussion can proceed further,” said Kisan Mazdoor Sangarh Committee (KMSC) president Sarwan Singh Pandher, according to news agency PTI.
Pandher’s KMSC and the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal are the two organisations leading the farmers that have now halted at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab.
On Saturday, a powerful farm group in Haryana too took out a tractor rally across the state, backing the demand by their Punjab counterparts for the MSP to be legally guaranteed across more crops.
“The Union government in December 2021 promised us to give a MSP guarantee to farmers and now they are taking a U-turn. In 2011, when Narendra Modi was Gujarat chief minister and headed a financial committee consisting of chief ministers to analyse the Swaminathan committee report, he asked the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to give a legal guarantee on the minimum support price. Why is the Centre running away from giving a legal guarantee on the MSP,” asked Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni) president Gurnam Singh Charuni.
Charuni’s declaration could potentially add to the government’s headache since his outfit commands a large following of farmers in Haryana, who are already on the other side of the border from where the Punjab farmers have been halted.
Support has also grown from other farm outfits in recent days. The BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), another farmer group based in Punjab, said it will carry out protests across the city over the weekend, and the BKU unit in West UP’s led by Rakesh Tikait said farmers will stage dharnas in UP, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand on February 21 to press their demands, including the one on MSP.
At the Shambhu border, Pandher said on Saturday that the “government can bring the ordinance overnight, if it wants so”. Pandher said as far as the issue of modalities is concerned, any ordinance has a six-month validity, and that the demand is to use the “C2 plus 50 per cent” (all costs including imputed costs of family labour, owned capital and rental on land) formula as per the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation, and not the “A2 plus FL” (costs actually paid plus imputed value of family value labour) formula the government has backed.
On the issue of farm debt waiver, Pandher said the government is saying the loan amount has to be assessed. The government can collect data from banks in this regard, he said, adding, “It is a question of political will power.”
“They (the Centre) are saying it has to be discussed with the states. You leave aside the states. You talk about the Centre and central banks and then finalise how to waive farmers’ debt,” Pandher added.
Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda, who was part of a three-minister delegation that held talks with farm union representatives well into midnight on Thursday, said on Friday he was hopeful that the fourth round of talks scheduled for Sunday will “yield positive results”.
Commerce minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for home Nityanand Rai are the other ministers who have held the talks.
Farmers seek MSP ordinance ahead of today’s crucial talks – Hindustan Times
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