Former Minister and senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Sunday demanded the sugarcane State Assured Price (SAP) be increased to Rs 380 per quintal and all pending dues of cane growers be released. At the same time, he also asked Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu to ensure a fair SAP is given to sugarcane growers by his Government as advocated by him.
Majithia, who had come here to pay his obeisance at Gurdwara Baba Bakala Sahib on the occasion of Rakhar Punia, said that the new Punjab Congress president should tell farmers why he had not taken up the issue of meeting the demands of sugarcane growers with the government till now.
Sidhu had advocated giving MSP for all the major crops of Punjab on the same pattern as MSP is given to Himachal farmers for apple, pointed Majithia saying that the issue was raised in front of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the party’s Moga rally.
Now that Sidhu is the state Congress president and is even having a say in governance, he should ensure MSP and SAP are offered to farmers for all major crops, he added.
Majithia said that the Congress Government had only paid lip sympathy to the cause of diversification since the last four and half years. “Forget giving MSP for oilseeds and lentils besides milk, vegetables, and fruits, it has not even cared to increase the SAP for sugarcane for four years. This is why we have failed to come out of the wheat-paddy cycle,” he said asking Sidhu to explain what was hindering him from getting MSP and SAP implemented on all the major crops of Punjab.
“This is a State subject. Why don’t you do it now instead of continuing to befool farmers with future promises?” he asked.
SAD leader said that it was shocking that even though farmers of Doaba were holding a huge protest against the injustice being done to sugarcane growers, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and PPCC president Sidhu were showing utmost callousness towards farmers.
“We assure cane growers that in case the Congress Government does not increase the SAP on sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal, we will do so once the SAD-BSP alliance government is formed in the State,” said Majithia also assuring the cane growers that the next SAD-BSP alliance Government would offer matching or even higher rate for sugarcane vis-Ã -vis the neighbouring States.
He also assured to create a mechanism to ensure timely payment of sugarcane dues to growers.
Majithia said the SAD-BSP alliance was committed to correct the wrongs done unto farmers by the Congress government. “We are committed to giving a government job and Rs 10 lakh compensation to next of kin of all Kisan Andolan martyrs,” he added.
Low sugarcane prices, pending dues destroying sugar cultivators: BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday hit out at the ruling Congress for blatant lower prices of sugarcane in Punjab, pending dues of the sugarcane growers, leading to massive protest.
Punjab was offering meager Rs 310 per quintal for the crop while neighbouring Haryana was giving Rs 345 and even Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were doling out Rs 325 each for the past many years, said senior BJP leader Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.
Demanding at least Rs 400 per quintal for cane, Chhina said while the Centre Government was increasing the prices every year, the state of Punjab has not enhanced the prices since 2017.
Apart from this, he said that the pending dues of the farmers are ruining them and they are left with no choice but to protest now as over 1.8 lakhs farmers are virtually on roads due to the faulty policies of the government.
Chhina also blamed the Chief Minister for benefitting the private mills by not increasing the prices for the last so many years.
“There is clear cut involvement of the present regime with the private players who influence the price-change,” he alleged, stating that the dues of the farmers have accumulated to more than Rs 200 crores and the farmers were at the receiving end due to the failures of the State Government.