CHANDIGARH: Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said farmers in the country were facing a crisis as BJP had promised to double their income by 2022, but instead of increasing this, it had increased input costs, resulting in debt.
Hooda told the media that Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is proving beneficial for the insurance companies, instead of the farmers.
"The farmers keep waiting for compensation at the time of crop failure and companies reap huge profits. They (the farmers) have not yet received compensation for the damage caused by the unseasonal rains in Haryana. Till now, through this scheme, insurance companies have earned a profit of Rs 40,000 crore in the country," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Hooda said in the Raipur convention of the Congress, the party had taken a resolution that after the formation of the Congress government, the PMFBY would be given a new look by removing all shortcomings.
"The insurance scheme will be operated by public sector companies, which will work on the principle of 'no-profit, no-loss' and provisions would be made to create a revolving fund. Besides, its benefit will also be given to the landless agricultural labourers."
He said the farmers have to sell their mustard and wheat at a rate lower than the minimum support price (MSP) in this season and he himself visited marketing yards and knew the pain of the farmers.
"In the budget of 2018-19, the government had announced the TOP (tomato, onion and potato) scheme to benefit the farmers who grow vegetables, but today the tomatoes grown by farmers of Madhya Pradesh, the onions grown by Maharashtra farmers and the potatoes of the farmers of Haryana are bringing only grief to the farmers.
"Farmers in Punjab are forced to throw their capsicums on the roads because prices have crashed to Re 1 per kg," Hooda said.
The former CM further added that he himself recently visited the market of Kurukshetra, and the farmers told him that the price of potatoes was as low as 50 paise per kg. But the cost of growing potatoes is Rs 5-6 per kg. Similarly, today mustard farmers are also not getting MSP. The farmers are forced to sell their crops at a rate Rs 1,000-1,500 less than the MSP."
"Same is the condition of wheat. Due to unseasonal rains, it has been decided to impose a huge value cut in the rate of wheat from government procurement agencies on luster loss, while the government should bear this value cut itself and farmers should be given a bonus up to Rs 500 per quintal," he added.