TBN,20/02/24: Sarwan Singh Pandher, a prominent farmer leader, requested the Centre on Tuesday to hold a one-day session of Parliament and introduce legislation guaranteeing the MSP. The PM may convene a one-day meeting of Parliament and introduce legislation pertaining to the MSP guarantee.
All opposition parties ought to make it clear that they will support any MSP legislation introduced by the Centre in the Parliament by voting for it. Everyone should make their position known, he urged, from the Trinamool Congress to the Akali Dal to the Congress. On Monday, the leaders of the “Delhi Chalo” protest rejected the Center’s plan for government agencies to purchase cotton, maize, and pulses at MSP for a period of five years. They said that the proposal did not represent the interests of farmers in the greatest way possible and proclaimed that they would be marching on the nation’s capital on Wednesday. The proposal states that after CACP determines the MSP, government cooperative agencies, such as NCCF and NAFED, will purchase maize and three pulses: Arhar, Urad, and Moong. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will next purchase cotton production. According to him, a five-year formal contract will be signed between the farmers and these authorities for this purpose.
What the farmers desire: The farmers want their debts forgiven and a guarantee of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 crops. They want the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 to be reinstated, the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations to be implemented, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, no increase in electricity rates, the dismissal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in 2021, and compensation for the families of farmers who perished in an earlier agitation in 2020–21.
