Mandsaur firing: Congress stalls Parliament

Centre says determined to double farmers income by 2022

Police firing on agitating farmers’ of Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh which killed six people last month rocked Parliament for the second day on Wednesday with the opposition lead by Congress launching a scathing attack on the government for being insensitive to the plight of growers.
 
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh his reply to a more than five-hour long discussion under rule 193 in the Lok Sabha on the ‘Agrarian Situation in the Country’, said the Central government has prepared a full fledged roadmap for doubling farmers’ income till 2022 as promised by the Prime Minister and is working on various fronts to realise the dream.

 
He said there have been some complaints about the implementation of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NaM) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the government is working to remove them including initiating investigation against insurance companies.
 

He also said that current government had allocated maximum budget for agriculture and rural sectors and will continue to do so to help the poor and needy.
 
“We are bearing the burden of wrong policies and focus of last 60 years but are determined to current them,” Singh said.  He said a new model APMC Act and change in marketing bylaws are steps which would help farmers get better price for their produce.

 
“We will achieve the goal of doubling farmers income by concentrating on allied sectors of agriculture namely horticulture, fisheries, bee-keeping, agro-forestry etc,” the minister said.
 
He also said that Centre raised credit disbursal target to help farmers get easier access to institutional credit but didn’t mention anything on loan waivers.
 
Meanwhile, initiating the discussion Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said that it is really sad in the last one month since the Mandsaur police firing more than 65 farmers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh, while the state government hasn’t bothered to even care for them.
 
Earlier, the Congress along with other opposition parties like TMC, Left and RJD  trooped into the well of the House forcing repeated adjournments.

 
Even BJP ally and Swabhimani Paksha (SWP) MP Raju Shetti also sparred with the treasury benches over the issue.
 
"Is the farmer a terrorist? We need a CBI probe into the matter (Mandsaur firing)," Shetti said.
 
Scindia meanwhile during the discussion said Congress wants full implementation of the SWaminathan Committee report which has suggested fixing an Minimum Support Price (MSP) which is 50 per cent more than the weighted cost of production and full waiver of all loans taken by farmers.
 
Scindia said Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks on every issue, but didn’t utter a word on Mandsaur firing.

 
Virendra Singh from the BJP demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss issues related to agriculture sector and steps to find concrete solutions to the issue.
 
He also said that steps should be taken to ensure that perishable farm commodities like consumed instantly so that farmers don’t suffer.
 
 
Barhtari Mahtab of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said that the much talked of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has many flaws which needs to be rectified while it should be ensured that MSPs should be fixed more than the realistically more than the cost of production of all farmers.

 
“MSPs does not reflect the true floor price of many commodities,” Mahtab said.
 
Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar who also hails from Madhya Pradesh and was a former state chief reminded the Congress about the firing on farmers in Multai in Madhya Pradesh in 1998 when around 24 growers were killed.
 
Incidentally, both the Mandsaur firing and Multai killings had strikingly similarity including the blame-game between BJP and Congress. Congress leader Digvijay Singh was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh during the Multai firing in 1998.
 
Meanwhile, the representatives of over 150 farmers organization holding a ‘Kisan Panchayat’ in Jantar Mantar to mark the conclusion of their month-long protest March from Mandsaur have decided to extend their agitation and will now hold protest rallies from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar and regroup in the national capital on October 2.

 
“If the government still doesn’t accept our demands will be go for a indefinite agitation,” a leader associated with the protest said. The farmers are demanding right price for their produce, implementation of Swaminathan Committee report on MSPs and making all farmers debt free.
 
Congress leader Digvijay Singh along with host of other politicians extended their support to the agitating farmers’. Farmers from Tamil Nadu who had come with the skull replica of dead farmers also joined the protests.