Govt looks to Centre for implementing Swaminathan panel recommendations

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 15

The first BJP Government in Haryana romped home victorious on the promise of implementating the Swaminathan Commission report on agricultural prices.

However, about 50 days after taking over charge in the state, the Khattar Government’s Agriculture Minister, OP Dhankar, who as the BJP Kishan Morcha chief was a strong votary of implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, seems to have developed cold feet on the issue. As the BJP Kisan Morcha chief, Dhankar waged a long battle against the former UPA Government for implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations.

The state government seems to be looking to the Central Government for implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission regarding the prices to be paid to farmers against their produce, which should be 50 per cent more than the cost of production.

Dhankar now says that the Central Government was committed to implementing the Swaminathan report in as it was part of the BJP manifesto and it could be done subject to the availability of resources.

However, farmers’ organisations are up in arms against what they called a ‘betrayal’ by the BJP Governments at the Centre and in the state.

“The farmers’ sole demand is implementation of the Swaminathan report and we are ready for a long struggle to force the government to concede our demand,” said Gurnam Singh, president of the Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU).

Even a working group on agriculture production headed by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in 2011 also endorsed the Swaminathan formula for the prices to paid to farmers for their produce.

What the report said

The National Commission on Farmers, popularly called the Swaminathan Commission, was constituted by the Central Government  on November 18, 2004, under the chairmanship of  eminent agricultural scientist Prof MS Swaminathan to suggest  ways and means for faster agricultural growth. It submitted five reports, the last on October 4, 2006. It broadly recommended that the MSP should be at least 50% higher than the cost of cultivation. 

Farmers on warpath

• A farmers’ panchayat is being held at Meham on December 18
• On December 24-25 farmers’ organisations from across the country to meet at Kurukshetra to decide course of action
• The BKU plans a mega rally on March 5, 2015, at Pipli for implementation of the report