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Informist, Wednesday, Jul 24, 2024

NEW DELHI – Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi today assured farmer leaders that the opposition parties will put pressure on the government to give a legal guarantee for minimum support price.

The senior Congress leader met farm leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana in Parliament complex today. Gandhi had invited leaders to a meeting at his office in Parliament. However, they were not allowed entry initially. When Gandhi highlighted the matter and intended to meet them outside, the farm leaders were eventually given entry.

"In our manifesto, we had promised a legal guarantee on minimum support price. We had done an assessment and arrived on conclusion that it is possible. We decided in the meeting that we will have (a) discussion with the leaders of opposition parties and will push for a legal guarantee of minimum support price to farmers of the country," Gandhi said.

Following the meeting, the farm leaders said that they had a detailed discussion on the issue of a legal guarantee on the MSP, and they got an assurance from Gandhi that the opposition parties would push for it in Parliament. The farmers also demanded an independent probe into atrocities meted out to them in Haryana earlier this year when they were marching towards Delhi to protest against the government on issues pertaining to MSP. They gave a memorandum to Gandhi demanding that India should exit from the World Trade Organization.

Farm leader Jagjit Singh said that Gandhi promised to push for a law on MSP. Another farm leader, Sarvan Singh Pandher, said that he told Gandhi that the government had been presenting a wrong perception on MSP.

Farmers have been demanding a legal guarantee for MSP for all crops, based on the formula recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan Commission. The commission recommended that the minimum support price should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production. This was also known as the C2+50% formula, which included the input cost of capital and the rent on the land, to give the farmers 50% returns. The farmers are also demanding implementation of a comprehensive debt relief programme, including a complete waiver of debt for farmers and labourers.

Moreover, farmers also sought a pension scheme for them and agricultural labourers and reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. Some other demands included justice for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and compensation for families of farmers who died during the agitation held in 2020-21.  End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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