Hitting hard on the Central Government, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee, (JPCC) on Saturday said that the Modi Government is making a disgusting plot to defeat the 'Green Revolution' and the Government is like a 'Corona epidemic', which is proving fatal to farming.
JPCC Chief Dr Rameshwar Oraon and Congress Legislature Party Leader, Alamgir Alam on Saturday addressed a press conference at Congress Bhawan, Ranchi. Addressing the media persons Oraon said that the claim of the Modi Government that now farmers can sell their crop anywhere in the Country is completely false. "Even today the farmers can take their crop to any place and sell it but what is the real truth? According to the Agricultural Census 2015-16, a total of 86 per cent of the Country's farmers own less than 5 acres of land. The average value of land is 2 acres or less. In such a situation 86 per cent of the farmers cannot transport or sell their produce anywhere other than the APMC. As soon as the mandi system is destroyed, the direct attack will naturally be on the farmer. As soon as the mandis are over, the livelihood of the millions of labourers, workers, accountants, transporters, sellers and others working in the grain-vegetable market will automatically end," he added.
"The predetermined 'minimum support price' in the mandi is the benchmark for the pricing of the crop of the farmer. With the end of the grain-vegetable market system, the income of the states will also end. The states undertake structural development of rural areas and encourage cultivation through 'Market Fee' and 'Rural Development Fund'. These were not paid by the farmer, but by the government agencies and private persons of FCI, Government of India, who procured wheat from the mandis. This source of income will end automatically as soon as the mandi system ends," said Oraon.
The JPCC Chief said that all three ordinances are a direct attack on the 'federal structure'. "Farming' and 'mandis' come under the jurisdiction of provincial rights in the seventh schedule of the Constitution but even the Modi Government did not think it appropriate to consult the provinces and protection and promotion of agriculture is naturally a matter of provinces, but no opinion was taken from them. The market fees and rural development fund for the uplift of the farm and village will be unilaterally abolished. This in itself is against the practice of the Constitution," he added.
On this occasion JPCC Executive President Rajesh Thakur, Keshav Mahato Kamlesh, Sanjay Lal Paswan, Spokesperson M Tausif, Jyoti Singh Matharu, Ranchi District Rural President Suresh Baitha were present.