Raising the demand of Punjab farmers with the Central Government, the State Congress on Monday demanded bonus of Rs200 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat.
To push for the demand, a delegation of Congress members of lok Sabha, led by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Delhi and submitted a memorandum demanding bonus on wheat MSP.
Bajwa, pleading the case of Punjab farmers, informed the Prime Minister that Punjab was once again looking at the record production of 150 lakh tones of wheat despite adverse conditions and natural calamities like attack of insects on crop, incriminate weather and errant power supply.
“Centre has announced Rs1,350 MSP for wheat which is inadequate since it does not cover the cost of production which comes around Rs1,700 per quintal. The working group on agriculture production headed by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also recommended that MSP should be 50 percent more than the cost of cultivation,” added Bajwa.
Further, he said that the current meager increase of only Rs65 per quintal in MSP of wheat does not, in any way, compensate the farmers for increase in the cost of inputs. “There is urgent need to announce bonus of not less than Rs200 per quintal over and above the MSP at an earliest,” said Bajwa, seeking Prime Minister’s intervention to do the needful.
Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tiwari, MPs Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, Santosh Chaudhary, Ravnit Singh Bittu, Sukhdev Singh libra and Vijay Inder Singla accompanied Bajwa.
A day before, Shiromani Akali Dal president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had demanded that wheat MSP be fixed at Rs1,500 per quintal with effect from the current season. Besides, he also dubbed Hooda’s demand of “mere bonus of Rs200 per quintal” as playing a “market fraud” on the farmers.