Facing ire of the farmer leaders over the Centre’s farm ordinances, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday offered to lead a delegation of farmer organisations to seek any clarification needed by them on the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce Ordinance-2020 from the Union Agricultural Minister NS Tomar.
At the same time, Sukhbir categorically declared that SAD would always stand with the farmers and never allow tinkering with MSP (minimum support price) or assured marketing of food grains.
“Nothing is more important to us than the welfare of farmers. SAD has always championed the cause of farmers. MSP and assured marketing are a question of life and death for the beleaguered peasantry and we understand this. We are ready to make any sacrifice needed to ensure they continue as assured by the Central Government. We have a policy of zero tolerance on this issue,” said Sukhbir.
SAD chief said that though Agriculture Minister NS Tomar had already assured that MSP was in force today and would remain in force in the future also, “I am ready to take a delegation of farmer organizations to the Minister to seek any clarification if needed on this issue”.”I am also committed to take an assurance in the Parliament that both MSP and assured marketing continue unhindered,” he added.
Also taking on both the CMr Capt Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar for trying to “mislead” Punjabis on this sensitive issue, Sukhbir said that they had amended the State Agriculture Produce Marketing CommitteeAct in 2017 to include the very provisions they were protesting against.
He asked the Chief Minister and State Congress chief to tell Punjabis why they had amended the APMC Act to allow creation of private markets, direct marketing, electronic agricultural marketing and single unified license for entire State in 2017.
“Not only this, the Congress Government also participated in the consultative process which led to the framing of the Agriculture Ordinance. It is unfortunate that after doing all this, both of them are trying to deceive farmers by indulging in mischievous propaganda which has been launched for the sole purpose of diverting attention from the utter failures of the Congress Govt,” he said.
SAD president also asked Jakhar to stop spreading disinformation on the Agriculture Ordinance saying that even today, multinationals and flour mills did not pay any tax to purchase food grains.
“When multi-nationals can do trade today, why are we resorting to scare tactics by claiming they will capture the entire market when the Union Agriculture Minister has already clarified that the entire government procurement will take place from Mandis,” said Sukhbir adding that this means that there will not be any difference in revenue collection of around Rs 4,000 crore.