Sidhu, Harsimrat talk tough on MSP hike

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 12

Terming the “patting of its own back” by the SAD-BJP alliance on the MSP hike as the politics of the “meanest standard”, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday said the stark reality was that the farmers haven’t got anything.

He said the fact that the thanksgiving rally organised by the SAD-BJP for the PM was boycotted by the farmers signified that the Centre had played a mere game of statistics that was rejected by the farmers.

Sidhu said it was being hyped by NDA government that the prices had increased 151 per cent, but if A2 and FL were put together. “In A2, cost of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, rent of land, labour, machinery etc is included, whereas in FL, the labour of the farmer’s family is also included.”

Meanwhile, Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday challenged Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to announce a bonus of Rs 1,000 immediately in case he was “really serious” about boosting farmers’ earnings instead of playing politics by dubbing the historic increase of Rs 200 per quintal in paddy MSP as fluff.

In a statement here, the Union Minister said it was condemnable that Capt Amarinder was terming the record increase in MSP of paddy and cotton as fluff or trivial.