File Photo: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "immediately" come to the rescue of the beleaguered farmers who have suffered extensive damage to their crops following unseasonal rains and other vagaries of weather in the region.
The Chief Minister requested a comprehensive package of relief and compensation measures for farmers whose crop had been affected.
Mr Badal said that for the first time, the farmer needs his country to stand by him in his "hour of extreme adversity".
Mr Badal also said the norms for providing relief under such conditions also need to be changed and brought in line with current ground realities and economic compulsions face by the farmers.
He pointed out that there was a dip in the quality of grain of wheat as a consequence of loss in its luster because of adverse weather conditions.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, copies of which were released to the media, Mr Badal called for bailing out the farmers from the current crisis by recasting the government policies drastically to regenerate farm economy with a long term agricultural policy re-orientation.
He said that the farmers faced "a tragedy of frightening proportions" because of natural calamities on the one hand and a long series of disastrous and anti-farmer policies of successive Congress governments the Centre.
"For more than half-a-century, the brave and patriotic peasantry answered every distress call of the nation and always took pride in sacrificing everything.
"But now, it is repayment time for the country. For the first time, the farmer needs his country to stand by him in his hour of extreme adversity and distress. The government must come to his rescue and repay a part of the debt which we always owe him," said Mr Badal.
The Chief Minister said that no cut should be applied to the price of the farmer's yield on this account because he was not responsible for this adverse effect caused by natural calamity which was beyond his control.
Secondly, said Mr Badal, there had been a fall in the overall yield of crop this year. As this too had been caused by reasons beyond the farmer's control, he should not be made to suffer for this. For this, the farmer should be paid adequate bonus to off set the loss in yield.
The Chief Minister further said that all these factors that followed natural calamity had severely hit the farmer's economic plight.
As a result, it was not possible for the farmer to fulfil his loan recovery obligations. "In view of this, the loan recovery from him should be deferred and staggered," Mr Badal sought.
Interest on these loans should be waived, he said, adding that, in addition to these measures of immediate and short-term nature, the government of India must also put in place an economically-viable approach and policy on MSP.
"MSP is not a favour done to the farmer. MSP is a national necessity whose original intent was to ensure food security for the country. That consideration still remains and will always remain valid," said Mr Badal.
The Chief Minister said that the MSP announced by the government every year does not adequately address the issue of making agriculture a lucrative profession.
"In fact, the MSP itself is non-viable and unsustainable for the farmer as it does not make farming a lucrative profession," said the Chief Minister.
Mr Badal made a strong plea for aligning MSP with overall price index.
Failing this, he said, the government should accept the recommendations of eminent farm economist Dr MS Swamitnathan and fix MSP to provide for 50 per cent profit over farmer's investment.
The Chief Minister also pleaded for the introduction of a subsidy-backed crop insurance scheme to help the farmers to deal with the natural calamities.
This, he said, should be backed by other measures to help the farmers out of the deep crisis in which he finds himself.
The Chief Minster also requested definite long-term banking reforms to help the agricultural sector.
This, he said, was absolutely essential in the interest of national food security. But this can be done only by giving agriculture its due place as a special category and preferential economic activity in the larger national interest.
The Chief Minister bewailed the neglect of the farming sector by the Congress government.
"The situation is extremely grave and dangerous. I earnestly and most humbly request - even beg - the Prime Minister to accord the highest priority to the most urgent task of saving the farmers of the country.
"I request him to take all stake holders in agriculture, including the farmers, the state government, the farm economists and scientists on board to arrive at a permanent solution," he said, adding that the farm crisis was the number one challenge facing the country today.
"In this, all enveloping atmosphere of utter despair and hopelessness, we are still so fortunate that we have in Narendra Modi as Prime Minister who fully understands the plight of the farmers and always prefers to stand by brave but beleaguered farmers, and on behalf of all the farmers of the country, I turn to Prime Minister to cut through the web of economic and administrative constraints to take a bold initiative," the Punjab chief minister said.