Announce implementation of Swaminathan report during interaction with farmers: Punjab CM to PM

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today hoped Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce initiatives for the welfare of farmers, including the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report, during his interaction with them tomorrow.

In a statement issued, Singh urged Modi to use the forum to announce reforms in the distressed agriculture sector.

Modi will speak to farmers tomorrow via video conference on issues concerning them and the agriculture sector. He is likely to flag his government's schemes aimed at boosting their income.

Reiterating his demand for a national farm debt waiver scheme and the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report in totality, Singh said farmers were in need of the prime minister's intervention.

He hoped Modi's interaction with farmers would yield concrete results "and not turn out to be a mere media op".

The committee's recommendations deals with measures to improve the state of agriculture and farmers in India. It submitted its final report in 2006 to then UPA government and urged it to take steps to secure farmers' income to check the agrarian distress and farmers' unrest across the country.

"Given the extreme agrarian crisis prevailing in the country, which was witnessing suicides by distressed farmers across states, Modi should seize this opportunity to announce major relief measures for the farming community," Singh said.

He said if Modi was serious about realising his vision of doubling farm income by 2022, he should waste no time in announcing the implementation of Swaminathan Committee report.

Let this occasion be historical in a true sense, he said.