‘Pass the draft state agriculture policy’: Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar challenges CM Mann

State Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian had moved the resolution in the House on the concluding day of the two-day special session on February 25. Members cutting across party lines supported the resolution. The only two BJP MLAs in 117-member Assembly — Ashwani Kumar and Jangilal Mahajan — were not present in the House when the resolution was passed.

The state agricultural policy was framed by the Punjab State Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Commission.

Jakhar said that out of 150 blocks, 60 are over-exploited. He said the state’s draft agricultural policy recommended a reduction in the area under paddy in over-exploited blocks (blocks with stages of groundwater extraction more than 300 per cent, 250-300 per cent and 200-250 per cent).

Jakhar said if the Centre’s draft of the NPFAM is bad, then what stops the AAP government from implementing its own state agricultural policy. He said the state’s agricultural policy stressed an alternative marketing system while highlighting the potential exploitation of farmers by commission agents, high interest rates on credit, spurious farm inputs, high commission charges and a lack of transparency in pricing mechanisms and transactions that have often led to farmers getting lower returns for their produce.

To eliminate the stronghold of commission agents and other inefficiencies of agricultural markets, the state needs an alternative marketing system, said Jakhar while reading out the contents of the draft policy.

Jakhar said, on the other hand, the Centre’s draft policy also spoke about the rationalisation of market fees and commission charges.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) had earlier given a call for a one-week long dharna in Chandigarh from March 5 demanding the rejection of NPFAM. SKM leaders have been opposing the NPFAM claiming that the Centre was trying to “bring back the three repealed farm laws through the backdoor”.

However, the farmers’ body is yet to clarify whether it would go ahead with the dharna as the Punjab government has already passed a resolution against NPFAM.

Jakhar, meanwhile, said, “While the NPFAM has only tried to rationalise the commission of agents, the draft agriculture policy of Punjab proposes an alternative marketing system. Are the farmer unions OK with this? They need to clarify”.

The BJP leader further said, “The draft policy mentions that the state government provides Rs 8,230 crore subsidy (free power) on agriculture. As per the records, there are 13.91 lakh tubewells in Punjab. So per tubewell subsidy comes out to around Rs 60,000…in the last season 32.31 lakh hectare paddy was sown in Punjab… So, if the figures are calculated, the state gave Rs 10,000 per acre subsidy to farmers to draw water from the ground for paddy sowing. So, what crime have those farmers done who don’t have tubewell connections and also those who don’t grow paddy?”
Jakhar said BJP believes in constructive opposition and was open to discussing the agriculture policy with the state government.

He asked farmer unions too to hold discussions on the agriculture policy with the state government and get it implemented if they had no objections to it.