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Farmer income never doubled, input costs spiked: Harsimrat
Shiromani Akali Dal Member of Lok Sabha from Bathinda constituency Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said that it was far from doubling farmer income as promised, the union government had presided over the doubling of the input costs of farmers even as Minimum Support Price on food grains was hiked by 2% to 5% annually during the last eight years.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Member of Lok Sabha from Bathinda constituency Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said that it was far from doubling farmer income as promised, the union government had presided over the doubling of the input costs of farmers even as Minimum Support Price (MSP) on food grains was hiked by 2% to 5% annually during the last eight years.
Speaking in Parliament, Harsimrat asked how much of the additional spending of ₹4 lakh crore grant being sought by the government would reach the farmers.
Farmers want to be ‘atamnirbhar’ and did not want to live on doles, the Bathinda MP said “what is needed is guaranteed crop procurement on MSP as well as fixation of MSP as per the Swaminathan formula to ensure a 50% profit to farmers on the total cost of production of a crop for which the first step in this direction was reconstitution of the MSP Committee as per the written assurance given to agitating farmers when they lifted their andholan one year back.
“The government should also make MSP a legal right as promised to farmers to ensure its aim of doubling farmer income can be achieved,” she demanded. Speaking on ‘discrimination’ being meted to Punjab, she added that attempts were being made to take away the river waters of the state bypassing the Riparian Principle which gave Punjab exclusive rights over its river waters.
She also made an appeal in the Parliament for the release of Sikh detainees incarcerated in prisons even after completion of their life terms. The SAD MP also requested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase goods and services tax on government advertisements while detailing how the AAP government in Punjab had increased advertisement expenditure from ₹ 20 crore per annum to ₹ 750 crore.
