Terming the slight increase in sugarcane prices by the Union Government as a “joke with the sugarcane growers”, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Thursday said that apart from this, the Modi Sarkar had not given any benefit to the sugarcane growers even in the package of Rs 8000 crore announced in 2018.
“The BJP-led Central Government was proving to be a bourgeois government which did not care about the poor farmers of the country. Due to COVID pandemic when farmers are facing severe economic crisis, a meagre hike of only Rs 10 per quintal is not enough,” said Jakhar.
Claiming that sugarcane crop could help in changing traditional crop cycle of wheat and paddy in Punjab, Jakhar said that the Centre’s anti-farmer policies were proving fatal to the state's crop diversification program.
“Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Centre had announced a package of Rs 8000 crore for sugarcane growers for political gain but even after two years, they did not know about the package and its status, this proved to be a part of the false promises that BJP had been making since it formed the government,” he added.
Slamming SAD, he said that it was even more astonishing that the Akali Dal leaders, who had been trumpeting the interests of the farmers, had remained silent on this very sensitive issue related to the farmers.