Congress chief Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday alleged that the central authorities desires to finish MSP by means of backdoor and Punjab and Haryana farmers are being punished below a deliberate conspiracy for opposing the now repealed farm legal guidelines. His feedback drew a pointy response from the Haryana authorities that accused Surjewala of deceptive and deceiving the individuals.
Congress chief Randeep Surjewala (HT file)
“Go to Dhand or Pundri grain market in Haryana’s Kaithal district. The grain market has been shut down there,” Surjewala additional alleged.
There are almost 9,000 rice mills in Punjab and Haryana, most of which do milling of grain procured for PDS and different schemes, he mentioned. The federal government creates an obstruction within the enterprise of rice millers in order that the acquisition and milling of the paddy of the farmers bought at MSP is in much less amount, he mentioned. “In the last five years, the Modi government has made a huge cut of ₹3,30,000 crore in fertiliser-food-and fuel subsidy. In the year 2020-21, this subsidy was 3.8% of GDP at ₹7,58,165 crore, and in year 2024-25, this subsidy was reduced to 1.3% of GDP, making it ₹4,28,423 crore,” he mentioned.
“The blow of food subsidy is even bigger. In the last two years alone, the Modi government has cut the food subsidy by ₹78,000 crore. In the year 2022-23, the budget expenditure on food subsidy was ₹2,83,475 crore, which was reduced to ₹2,05,250 crore in 2024-25,” he mentioned.
Surjewala mentioned there’s a deliberate conspiracy to cut back crop buy at MSP. “Compared to last year, till date, the purchase of 82,88,450 metric tonnes of paddy from Punjab and Haryana has decreased.
Later, the Haryana government, while claiming that Surjewala’s remarks were a bundle of lies, said, “A total of 4,84,927 farmers were registered on the ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal for the kharif season and 2,35,205 (till October 28) have benefited from paddy procurement. A total of 44.58 lakh metric tonne paddy has been procured and ₹8,545 crore paid to farmers,” an official spokesperson mentioned. The paddy procurement goal is 60 lakh MT, whereas 58.94 lakh MT was procured final 12 months, the state authorities talked about.
Concerning urea and DAP, the spokesperson mentioned that as of October 28, the state has 4,22,958 MT urea (together with outdated inventory), 27,357 MT DAP, 72,487 MT SSP and 31,206 MT NPK. (With PTI inputs)