Discontinue unfriendly farm policies, says Badal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28

CM Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Centre to rope in eminent agricultural experts and economists to suggest ways and means to arrest the trend of constantly dwindling profits from agriculture income due to unfriendly farmer policies.

He was replying to a query on the Punjab being the second state after Maharashtra with the highest farm suicides as informed by the Union Agriculture Minister during the ongoing session of the Lok Sabha.

He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the swearing-in-ceremony of the newly inducted Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) here this afternoon.

Badal categorically said that the state government had been making all out efforts to ensure welfare of farmers by giving them free power and other incentives from its meagre resources to make farming at least self-sustainable but he lamented that the rights of the farmers, who were passing through severe agrarian crisis must be safeguarded with prompt intervention of the Centre.

The CM said any complacency on this count could further add to the woes of the farmers besides putting the national food security at risk. He emphasised the need to implement the suggestions of the agriculture economists to make farming more viable so as to transform the destiny of the peasantry. He urged the Centre to immediately go for major structural changes for providing a level playing field to the farmers.