A week after extending support to the agitating farmers with his tweet, Bharatiya Janata party MP Varun Gandhi has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking various relief measures for farmers in the state and has sought a substantial rise in state advisory prices (SAP) for sugarcane, bonus on wheat and paddy, doubling the amount of PM KISAN scheme and subsidy on diesel.
In his letter, Varun Gandhi has suggested that the SAP should be increased to Rs 400 per quintal from Rs 315 for the last cane crushing season. He said farmers who were in distress should be given an additional bonus of Rs 200 per quintal above the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat and paddy.
In the two-page letter to Yogi Adityanath, the Pilibhit MP listed out all the problems and demands of the farmers and at the same time also suggested solutions for the same.
At a time when the BJP government in UP has claimed that it has cleared more than 83 per cent of dues of about 45 lakh sugarcane farmers of the state, Varun Gandhi has pointed out that some still remain unpaid. The UP government has claimed that over Rs 1, 42 lakh crore has been paid to the farmers in the last four years.
Gandhi, in his tweet last week, had called for re-engaging with protesting farmers:
“Lakhs of farmers have gathered in protest today, in Muzaffarnagar. They are our own flesh and blood. We need to start re-engaging with them in a respectful manner: understand their pain, their point of view and work with them in reaching common ground,” the Pilibhit MP had tweeted as farmers’ protest against the contentious laws resumed with new vigour in many parts of Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP MP also pitched for the doubling of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) to Rs 12,000 per annum for farmers with the state government contributing Rs 6,000 from its own funds. The PM KISAN scheme is an initiative by the Centre through which all farmers get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.
In his letter, Gandhi shared the concerns of the farmers over the high tariff of electricity and diesel price. He urged the chief minister to provide a subsidy of Rs 20 per litre on diesel to farmers and reduce the power prices with immediate effect.
On September 5, Uttar Pradesh witnessed a big gathering of farmers in Muzaffarnagar where the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha led by Jat leader Rakesh Tikait issued a call to vote against the BJP in the 2022 assembly elections in UP and Uttarakhand . However, the BJP leaders argued that the call to vote against the party at the Kisan Mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar on September 5 would not have any deep impact on its electoral prospects in the elections.