Common issues, including transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab and increasing MSP for wheat, have brought the arch rival — Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — together in Punjab.

Transcending the party lines, Congress on Thursday lent its voice to the issues raised by the Akali Dal. Both are demanding to transfer Chandigarh and other Punjabi-speaking areas in Haryana to Punjab, and also increasing the meager Rs50 hike in the wheat MSP by the Centre.

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa has even offered the ruling SAD to lead an “all party delegation” to raise these issues with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both the parties demanded “upward revision of the MSP”, besides seeking the implementation of Swaminathan report at the earliest. Besides, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal , who has all along been raising the issue of Chandigarh’s transfer to Punjab, once again reiterated its stand saying that “no stone will be left unturned” by the ruling SAD to get back Punjabi-speaking areas and Chandigarh.

“To get back the Punjabi-speaking areas and Chandigarh, hitherto deprived of the state, no stone will be left unturned for getting this demand met from the NDA-led Centre,” Badal said on the sidelines of a function in Maur to commemorate the death anniversary of Sant Fateh Singh. He said: “In all other linguistic states, the parent state has retained the capital, which has not happened in case of Punjab due to the apathetic attitude of the then Congress regime. It is high time that historical mistakes are rectified and Punjab state is given its right.”

Remembering the founder of modern day Punjab for his contribution towards formation of the state, the chief minister said Sant Fateh Singh contributed immensely towards formation of Punjab as Punjabi speaking state.

Joining in, Bajwa asked Badal to get a deadline of January 26, 2015, fixed from the “friendly government” at the Centre as a New Year gift to his state.

He said: “All-party delegation should take up the issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab which was built as the capital of Punjab…we are ready to join them.”

The issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab was raised by the Punjab unit of the BJP which was part of the ruling alliance in the state and headed the governments at the Centre and in Haryana as well.

On another issue of wheat MSP, Badal asked the Centre to “upwardly revise” the same for wheat for the forthcoming season. “MSP must be hiked to the level where the mismatch between input costs of agriculture produce and MSP announced for these was removed,” said Badal.

He said that Swaminathan formula for fixing MSP should be implemented, which says that farmers should get MSP covering the production costs, plus 50 per cent of these costs to be paid to the farmer.

Badal said that he saw hope “in the approach, philosophy and administrative response of the present government to the needs of the poor and the farmers…Considering market realities and overall price index in the country, a wheat

price of Rs1,450 could not even cover the expenses incurred by the farmers”.

He added that these costs had been going up despite the NDA government's success in bridling the rate of inflation. “Announcement of MSP should be made well before the start of the sowing season so that farmers can decide which crops to sow,” he said.

Badal said that at present, there is a serious disconnect between the farmers’ needs on one hand and priorities of governments on the other. “This disconnect, which has lasted nearly seven decades since independence must be ended,” he said.

Badal advocated the need for adopting and implementing aggressively pro-agriculture and pro-farmer policies to offset the negative effects of the agrarian crisis brought upon the economy in general and farmers in particular.

The new government at the Centre had to battle the legacy of the anti-farmer and anti poor policies of the UPA, he said.

“That makes it all the more necessary for the NDA government to undo the crippling effects of the UPA legacy and adopt and aggressively pro-agriculture and pro-farming policy. Hiking the MSP beyond the Rs 50 per quintal would be the first step in that direction,” he said.

Demanding to enhance wheat MSP by Rs 150 per quintal, SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said that Rs 50 increase “is not commensurate with the increase in cost of inputs and should be revised forthwith to protect the interests of the farming community”.

SAD urges that MSP of wheat be enhanced by at least Rs 150 per quintal to take into account the inputs spent by farmers as well as the recommendations of Dr Swaminathan Commission.

He pointed that agriculture in Punjab as well as the country was passing through a crisis and needed support from the Centre in the form of enhanced MSP.

Outrightly rejecting the “meagre Rs 50 per quintal hike”, Bajwa termed it as a cruel joke on the hard-pressed farmers, and demanded minimum of Rs 200 hike. He also called for “implementing the Swaminathan report in Toto immediately”.

He recalled that Modi had given full page ad in the newspapers before the lok Sabha election promising the farmers to implement Swaminathan report which had recommended at least 50 per cent profit to the farmers over and above the cost of production.