Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday alleged that the “anti-farmer” policies of the BJP-led Central Government were responsible for the farmer suicides in the country.
Hooda also called on the Centre to implement the Swaminathan Committee report.
The former Chief Minister, while addressing a “Kisan Panchayat” organised in Rewari to highlight the plight of farmers, said, “Farmers in the country are at crossroads. They are staring at a disaster due to the Government’s anti-farmer policies which are responsible for cases of farmer suicide”.
The BJP, before the polls, had promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission report, but once it came to power it “forgot about it”, Hooda alleged.
He demanded that the Centre to implement Swaminathan Committee report and said “if the report is implemented, then I would be first person to support it”.
“Swaminathan has recommended that farming could only be beneficial if farmers get 50 per cent profit on their total costs,” Hooda said.
He said, “The question today is not about the plight of farmers in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu or Haryana, but peasants across the country. The BJP Government is pursuing anti-farmer policies”.
Notably, the senior Congress leaders of Haryana have been holding separate public meetings in different parts of the state on farmers’ issue.
Claiming that the UPA had waived about Rs 72,000 crore of farmers’ loans, Hooda said the Central Government cannot just wash its hands off by leaving matters of farm debt waiver to the states.
Hooda also asked why the State Government was not waiving farm loans like in Maharashtra and Punjab.
“When farmers are demanding loan waiver, ministers in the Central Government are saying it is a state subject,” Hooda said.
The senior Congress leader also criticised Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar for not “vigorously” pursuing matters related to the early construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYl) canal with the Centre.
He (Khattar) should ask the Centre to complete the SYl canal’s construction. The Court’s verdict does not bar (the state) from taking up the construction work,” he said.
Speaking at the ‘Kisan Panchayat’, Congress leader and MlA Raghubir Singh Kadian read out a 15-point charter that listed the party’s demands, among which was the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.
Kadian and other leaders present on the occasion also favoured that Hooda be made the president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee.
The former Chief Minister, who had recently held a ‘Kisan Panchayat’ in Kurukshetra, announced that a ‘Maha Kisan Panchayat’ will be held to raise the problems of farmers.
Meanwhile, senior party leader and Haryana MlA Randeep Singh Surjewala has also been holding meetings in different parts of the state where he has targeted the Centre on farmers’ issue. Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar had recently held a three-day ‘satyagraha’ in Karnal to highlight the plight of peasants.