Chandigarh, November 17 (Trinew)
Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupendra Singh Hooda has opposed the closure of government procurement of paddy. Hooda said that this time lakhs of hectares of farmers’ crops were damaged due to floods. The BJP-JJP government had announced that farmers who plant paddy again will be given incentive money. Due to this, replanting of paddy was delayed at many places. That paddy from many such districts has not yet reached the market. In Kurukshetra, Ambala, Fatehabad and Sirsa, about 20 percent of paddy is yet to be harvested. Despite this, government procurement has been stopped from now on.
The government has handed over the farmers to private agencies so that they cannot get MSP. It is clear from the repeated decisions being taken by the government that it is shirking the responsibility of giving MSP and wants to completely ruin the farmers.
Hooda said that the figures of government procurement of paddy have exposed the claims of the government itself. Because this time the government has purchased about 1.5 lakh tonnes less than the target set by itself. Not only this, compared to last year the government has reduced the purchase by about 60,000 tonnes. Last time, the government had purchased 59.35 lakh tonnes, which this time came down to 58.70 lakh tonnes whereas the government had set a target of 60 lakh tonnes.
The former CM said that not only MSP, the coalition government has also proved to be a complete failure in providing fertilizers to the farmers. Earlier, at the time of sowing of potatoes and mustard, fertilizers were not given to the farmers on time. Due to this, black marketing of fertilizers took place openly. Now wheat sowing has started and once again farmers are facing shortage of fertilizer. Farmers have to wait in long queues for many days.
