Advani takes up cudgels for paddy-growers

THEBJP has stepped up its pressure on the Manmohan Singh government to take immediate steps to redress the grievances of paddy and sugarcane-growers, especially those hailing from the southern states.

In a letter written to the prime minister on Saturday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L K Advani took up the cause of these sections, seeking immediate central intervention. While seeking a higher minimum support price (MSP) for paddy, he also demanded debt relief for sugarcane farmers from Andhra Pradesh, particularly those belonging to the Telengana region.

“I am writing this letter to bring to your kind attention the growing unrest among the paddy growers across the country, particularly in the southern states. They are agitated over the new MSP fixed by the Centre, which has no relation to the cost of cultivation. An added cause for their unrest is the widespread feeling that the UPA government is discriminating between paddy growers vis-à-vis the wheat growers,” Mr Advani pointed out in the letter.

“It is reported that the CACP has recommended an MSP of Rs 1,000 per quintal for wheat in the coming season. Paddy-growers, however, will get Rs 645 per quintal for the common variety and Rs 675 per quintal for the A grade. These are only slightly higher compared to the MSP of Rs 620 and Rs 650 respectively in the previous season,’’ the former deputy prime minister added.

Many representatives of farmers’ organisations, Mr Advani observed, had approached him to say that the MSP for paddy was way below the cost of cultivation which, according to them, was about Rs 950- Rs 1000 per quintal. “This is due to the steep hike in recent years in the cost of all the inputs – power, irrigation, transportation, fertilisers, pesticides and labour,” Mr Advani stated.

“I do appreciate the hike in the MSP for wheat. However, I feel that the concerns of paddy-growers must be addressed by the government. I learn that several state governments have brought this issue to the notice of your government. I, therefore, urge you to take urgent steps to declare a hike in the MSP for paddy to Rs 1,000 for the current procurement season,” the opposition leader demanded.

He also took up the cause of the canegrowers from AP. “Earlier this month, a delegation of farmers from Medak district in Andhra Pradesh met me to apprise me of a unique campaign that they had undertaken to highlight the problem of farmers suicides in the Telengana region of the state,” the BJP veteran said, adding, “Four of them — D Vasant Kumar, G Govind Reddy, K Narayan Reddy and K Ramulu — had come to Delhi on a ‘Kisan Azadi Pad Yatra’, covering a distance of 1,840 km on foot in 54 days. I complimented them on their arduous pad yatra. They explained to me the numerous difficulties faced by farmers, especially sugarcanegrowers, in their region.”

Later, Mr Advani pointed out, the four young activists went on an indefinite hungerstrike at Jantar Mantar to press for their demands. “I met them at the venue of their protest action on October 3 and appealed to them to end their hunger-strike, which had entered its sixth day. They heeded my appeal,” he said.

The BJP leader then proceeded to lay out his roadmap for the redressal of their woes. It included immediate debt relief to all the distressed farmers, especially sugarcane-growers, in Telangana; a generous rehabilitation package for the families of the farmers who had committed suicide; timebound completion of all the irrigation schemes in Telangana to lessen the burden on farmers who were required to dig bore-wells deeper and deeper at enormous cost, often taking loans from private moneylenders at usurious interest rates; provision of easy and timely credit to farmers through banks, and mandating them to widen their network of Grameen Banks in villages.