Ensure MSP, promote agro-based industries, say farmers’ leaders

Kisan leaders have called on the government to address illegal immigration from Punjab by ensuring fair prices for crops, aiming to change the perception that agriculture is no longer a profitable career for youth. Sarwan Singh Pandher, the state leader of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee Punjab and coordinator of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, stressed the importance of promoting agro-based industries, dairy, horticulture and other allied businesses as alternatives to illegal migration.

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Pandher and other Kisan leaders have urged the government to make agriculture a profitable venture by ensuring a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops. They also highlighted the need to support farmers and labourers through the promotion of various agro-based industries.

Under the leadership of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), farmer union activists have been protesting at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders, demanding the implementation of MSP. Pandher noted the struggle for farmers’ and labourers’ rights would mark its one-year anniversary on February 13. He said to commemorate the occasion, representatives from farmer and labour organisations across the country would gather at the Shambhu Border for a meeting.

Pandher also announced hundreds of farmers and labourers from Amritsar district would join the protest at Shambhu Border on Monday. He said their demands included a legal guarantee for MSP based on the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, 200 days of work per year under MGNREGA with a daily wage of Rs 700, debt relief for farmers and labourers and the restoration of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act. Additionally, they are calling for the withdrawal of cases filed during the Delhi agitation, justice for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre, a comprehensive crop insurance scheme, pensions for farmers and labourers and the full implementation of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution to protect tribal rights.

Pandher said the protest would continue until all their demands are met.