Govt stand on land Bill irks farmers

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 12

Various farmer organisations are up in arms against the amendments made to the Land Acquisition Bill and non-implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report.

The BKU group has planned a farmers' rally at Khanna on March 24. Among others, it will be addressed by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. The Ajmer Singh Lakhowal group of the BKU will start its protest in New Delhi from March 18. Almost all farmer organisations are against the amendments to the Land Act.

"We will be moving to New Delhi with a large number of farmers", Balbir Singh Rajewal of the BKU said adding that there were three issues on which his organisation would be focusing. First was the amendments made to the Land Acquisition Bill 2013, another non-implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report and the third setting up a separate budget for the farm sector.

"We will be camping in New Delhi till the government announces to implement the commission report. We have sought a separate budget for the agriculture sector on the pattern of the Railway budget," he said.

Rajewal said his organisation was also concerned over the Shanta Kumar committee report. Its implementation would hit the states like Punjab and Haryana. "We want the Union Government to give a categorical assurance that the FCI would continue to procure foodgrain from food surplus states like Punjab," he said.

"Anna Hazare has decided to visit Punjab for four days starting March 21. He would pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on March 21 and the next day, he would attend a function in Jalandhar and on March 23, he would be at Khatkar Kalan to pay tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh", said Rajewal.

Sukhdev Singh Kokri Group is already holding dharnas in support of farmers' demands. The All India Kisan Sabha headed by Prem Singh Bhangu has also started protest dharnas at district headquarters.

Farmer organisations are upset over the stand taken by the Akali MPs in the Lok Sabha on the amendments. First the SAD took a tough stand against the amendments outside the House and later supported the same when the Bill was presented for voting.

As per the Swaminathan Commission report, the farmers have been demanding at least 50 per cent higher minimum support price (MSP) than the average cost of production of various crops.

Bhangu said the commission's other recommendations that had not been implemented included setting up of agriculture risk fund, market price stabilisation fund and gram panchayat mahila fund.

"The commission report is multi-volume and it has a plethora of recommendations for various sectors. In fact, it has also addressed social issues related to farmers such as child-care centres, support services for women like crèches, nutrition and health and training, timely, adequate and easy reach to institutional credit and farm friendly insurance instruments," he said.

Though various recommendations made by the commission were incorporated in the National Policy for Farmers 2007, the MSP element was not included.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, almost all political parties, especially the SAD and the BJP, had assured the farmers that if voted to power, they would implement the Swaminathan Commission report regarding the MSP. But, this has not been done so far. In fact, the Union Government has backed off from the promise.