Dr Cheema on Punjab Budget:Centre colluding with oil companies to loot common man

Debate on Punjab Budget:SAD includes small & marginal farmers in MNREGA

Chandigarh, June 25 : The Shiromani Akali Dal demanded recasting of the much publicized MNREGA scheme to help the small and marginal farmers to cover wages for labour on their own farms and urged the Centre government to adopt a pro farmer approach while formulating farm policies and promote agro based industry in the state to help the farmers in the state who have struggled a lot to make the country self sufficient in food grains.
The party also demanded a complete restructuring of the agricultural cost and price process by linking the MSP to the market forces or accepting Dr. Swaminathan formula of giving 50 percent profit over and above the investment incurred by the farmers. Initiating the discussion on the budget in Punjab Vidhan Sabha today, the SAD Secretary and Spokesman Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said that to give more push to the much publicized MNREGA scheme in the states like Punjab it would be appropriate to increase the wages paid to the laborers and there is urgent need to cover the small and marginal farmers in the scheme as they are the worst sufferers of the wrong farm policies of the Centre. He said that the scheme could prove helpful to these poor farmers if they be included in the scheme and
provided monetary help to work in their own fields. This is must because the cost of labour is never counted while fixing MSP for various food grains. Demanding recasting of the system to decide the MSP of the food grains, he said that the hands of the Commission for Agriculture and Price are tied before empowering it to decide on the MSP of the
agriculture produce. He said that the Centre was hell bent on curtailing the subsidies on the DAP and other manures knowing well that this will further burden the debt ridden peasantry in the whole country. He pointed out that with the new policy of nutrient based subsidy started by the UPA government the cost of DAP has reached about Rs. 1230 per bag which was earlier less than Rs. 500. Similarly, he added that the unprecedented hike in the price of diesel has further added to escalation of input costs which are not being compensated with the present MSP. He said that new scheme of giving Rs. 2 lacs to the families of the farmers who committed suicide because of mounting debts will go a long way in soothing the wounds of the aggrieved families but to stop this practice the Union government will have to change its anti farmer policies. Lashing out at the Centre for colluding with the oil companies in looting the common man, Dr. Cheema said that the government is directly helping the oil companies in plundering the common man and skipping the review on June 16 for lowering the price of the petrol in light of reduction in the international prices was a clear evidence in the matter. He said that the government must lower the price of the petrol by Rs 5.46 per litre in as the price of the crude oil has fallen from $115.81 to $ 99.75 per barrel.