Farmers get destroyed due to import of foreign cereals, says Surjewala
| Date :29-Apr-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
AICC Spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told that farmers have suffered enough in five years rule of Modi Government. Against the 4.2 per cent agriculture development during previous UPA regime, agriculture development rate has fallen to 2.5 percent. He also said that this time, election is being fought by five persons and institutions vis PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, ED, CBI and IT department. He was addressing press conference in State capital on Sunday. He stated that after coming to power, Modi Government tried to abolish land acquisition law by bringing a resolution. Instead of getting 50 per cent profit on production, farmers failed to get even Minimum Support Price (MSP) on their produce. Moreover, he accused Modi Government of leaving farmers in quandary by lessening import duty on cereals to benefit some of his friends. In 2016-17, there was 985.1 lakh ton wheat production in country and surprisingly, Modi Government reduced import duty on wheat to zero and thus brought 57,49,434 MT cheap wheat and this resulted into windfall of wheat prices in country.
The country farmers got destroyed. Likewise, on an average, country needs 230 lakh MT pulses and against this demand, farmers produced 231 lakh MT pulses in 2016-17. Surprisingly Modi Government imported 66,08,951 MT pulse at cheaper rate from abroad and owing to this reason, farmers failed to get desired price of their produce. He alleged that Modi Government increased foreign agriculture import and thus destroyed country’s farmers. In 2014-15, agriculture import was pegged at 18,779 million dollar and this increased to 23,469 millon dollar in 2017-18. He also accused Modi Government of giving step motherly treatment to farmers of Madhya Pradesh after BJP lost assembly elections in state. He said that against the urea demand of 3,70,000 MT, only 1,87,000 MT urea was supplied. Seeing this, CM Kamal Nath had camped in Delhi to ensure adequate supply of urea to state.
He said if Congress comes to power then it will separately bring farmer budget for the welfare of farmers. Likewise, he told that Jan Ayog which was promised in assembly manifesto of Congress will be formed after Lok Sabha and probe of scams including VYAPAM would be done. He also alleged that some private companies got benefitted immensely in the name of crop insurance policy brought by Modi government. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Rs 17,353 crores were taken from farmers in the name of premium and in this manner, insurance companies reaped heavy benefit of Rs 21,731 crores.