Modi Govt failed to provide legal guarantee for MSP – Bhupinder Singh Hooda
On Thursday, Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda addressed a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
The Narendra Modi government has failed to keep its pledge to provide legal guarantees for MSP on farm produce, according to the Congress, citing a dilution of the terms of reference for the committee formed for this purpose.
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Senior Congress politician and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda remarked during a press conference that the administration has repeatedly neglected farmers. They vowed to double farm income by 2022; but, two years later, farmers are in higher debt, with debt soaring from 9.6 lakh crore in 2014 to 23.44 lakh crore presently, he continued.
‘The government’s intentions to provide legal security to MSP are dubious.’ If they wanted to give MSP legal validity, they could have done so right away and declared it,’ Mr. Hooda added. He noted that he is representing the views of the numerous farmers’ groups who, through their persistent demonstrations, compelled the government to reconsider the three farm legislation aimed at commercializing agriculture. One of the promises made to these organizations in 2021 when they concluded their year-long protest after the government repealed the three problematic pieces of legislation was to provide legal support to MSP.
Mr. Hooda, who was the chairman of the committee that looked into agricultural issues during the Congress’s three-day plenary session in Raipur recently, said the Congress has already made a commitment to the electorate that if it comes to power, it will pass legislation giving legal backing to the MSP and making selling farm produce below it a punishable offense.
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He also criticized the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme), claiming that it had become a mechanism to create profits for corporate companies, which had made 40,000 crores by abusing it. Indeed, the entire spectrum of initiatives aimed to improve farmers’ conditions has been curtailed, he said, including the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, as well as fertilizer and food subsidies to the agri sector.
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