Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today rejected the hike of Rs 20 per quintal in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat by the Centre, raising it to Rs 1,100 from last year’s Rs 1,080 per quintal. He described it as ‘woefully inadequate and unjustified’.
In a statement, Badal said a meagre hike of Rs 20 was nothing but a cruel joke on the beleaguered farmers, already in distress due to low returns on their produce despite exorbitant cost of agricultural inputs incurred by them.
He further said that the Centre’s decision to hike the MSP of wheat by just Rs 20 per quintal could never be the answer to the agony of the farming community.
Badal said the non-remunerative MSP coupled with anti-farmer policies of the Centre were primarily responsible for the decline of the growth rate of the agriculture sector.
Bharti Kissan Union president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal also criticised the government for declaring an increase of only Rs 20 in the MSP for wheat, and further mentioned that if the government made it a principle to give remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce then there would be no scarcity of agricultural produce.