NEW DELHI: While Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has extended its full support to the farmers from Punjab and Haryana protesting againts the new farm laws, the capital’s farmers are also dire situation due to the apathy of the Delhi and central governments.
Pradeep Dagar from Dhansa village is a troubled man.
He had to sell his mustard crop at a loss of almost Rs 800 per quintal last year and he is staring at huge depression in the prices of wheat in coming months.
“In the tussle between the Delhi and central government, we — the small farmers of Delhi — are getting crushed. Government is not leaving us any option but to sell our lands as farming has become an almost impossible task for us now. The Delhi government has not procured crops on minimum support price (MSP) from farmers in the last six years. We are with protestors as their demands are legitimate,” Dagar said.
Paras Tyagi, who runs a non-profit for farmers, said farmers are facing huge problems since the Shiela Dikshit government removed the tag of agriculture state from Delhi.
“The current AAP regime should change this and give Delhi back the status of agricultural state. It will help the farmers a lot. As land is a subject under the control of the Centre, most of the blame must fall upon. However, the Delhi government can help a lot but is not doing so,” said Tyagi.
As per the 2019 Economic Survey of Delhi there is almost 34,000 hectares of land under cultivation in the capital.
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“There are major issues in the land revenue act which does not allow us to make own storage facilities. The Delhi government is also not taking any steps to make more godowns so that we can store grains if unable to sell at a price which we like for later. We are forced to sell at a low price to survive. Government should implement LDRP policy in the Green belt,” Dagar said.
Most farmers in Delhi are supporting those gathered at borders of the national capital to protest against the laws passed by the Centre.
“The land pooling policy is a faulty. It will leave farmers landless. Like me, many other farmers have told the government that we cannot afford the Development Charges for the villages under the 60:40 ratio as per the current requirement of the policy,” said Devender Singh from Nangal Thakran village in North Delhi.
Jitendar from Jhuljhuli village said that the current farm laws need to analysed more and that the Delhi government should create more storage facilities.