Congress promises MSP with legal guarantee under Swaminathan panel

The Congress on Sunday promised farmers will be given minimum support price (MSP) with legal guarantee under C2 formula of M.S. Swaminathan Commission.

Not only loan waivers, the party would work towards complete debt relief of farmers and making agriculture a profitable business. Besides, the agriculture will also be given government assistance and banking concessions like industry.

These goals have been set by the party in its ongoing 85th plenary in the Chhattisgarh capital.

The Committee on Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, formed under the leadership of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, presented its draft in the session and gave detailed information about all goals of the party.

In his address, Hooda said due to the insensitivity of the present government, the farmer is sad and agitated and is being forced to commit suicide. "Today the farmer of India is neither happy nor prosperous. But the farmer is not destitute, the farmer is not poor, the farmer is silent but not lost his voice. The farmer is sleeping, but not dead. When the sweat of the farmers falls on the ground, mother earth turns it into gold, but when the blood of the farmer mixes with the soil, a revolution is born. The Congress party shares the voice and sufferings of the farmers."

The draft said the country cannot progress without improving the condition of the farmers and giving farmers the right and law of MSP is most important.

Buying agricultural produce at a price less than MSP should be a punishable offence. Not only this, the price of the crop should be fixed by adding 50 per cent profit on C2 cost, as recommended in 2010 by the Swaminathan Commission and the group of Chief Ministers headed by the then Haryana Chief Minister Hooda.

The scope of MSP should be further increased and implemented on other crops as well. From ginger, garlic, turmeric, chillies to horticulture, all agricultural products should get guaranteed price cover.

Hooda said the Congress expresses concern over the alarmingly increasing debt burden on the farmers, which is forcing many farmers to commit suicide. "During the current BJP government, the total outstanding loan on farmers has increased to Rs 23.44 lakh crore in 2021-22 from Rs 9.64 lakh crore as on March 31, 2014. The UPA government implemented a Rs 72,000 crore loan waiver scheme for farmers in 2007. The present government has brushed it aside leaving it entirely to the states," he added.

--IANS

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