Opposition parties on Tuesday attacked the Centre over growing protests of farmers and said the Centre should act responsibly to address their woes.

Participating in a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the farmers’ distress ‘leading to a rise in the incidents of their suicide in the country’, the Elders said the Centre’s insensitivity is further creating hurdles for farmers. Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will reply to the debate on Wednesday.

‘Sell-out to insurers’

Initiating the debate, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said issues such as relaxing import duty, inadequate minimum support price (MSP) and poor insurance coverage had affected farmers’ lives in the last three years.

“The government is more worried about the insurance companies. If there is any loss for the companies, the government will help them, but if the companies are making profit, the government will not get a share of it. Claim decided in favour of farmers is ₹5,962 crore, but claim paid is only ₹1,934 crore. It means that only 32 per cent claim approved by the companies have been paid by the insurance companies,” Singh said.

He urged the Centre to announce the MSP at least three months prior to sowing.

‘MP gained from BJP rule’

BJP MP Prabhat Jha said the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh had so far spent more than ₹18,000 crore in the farm sector and the State’s agriculture had benefited from it.

He said the previous government also did not implement the MS Swaminathan Committee report. Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav demanded that the Centre come up with a clearer policy on cattle farming.

‘The Bengal model’

The Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien said the States could follow the West Bengal on the issue of crop insurance. “This is not a problem in West Bengal because the State government is covering for the farmer, but in the rest of the country, claims paid to farmers are less than ₹2,000 crore out of ₹6,000 crore. The Agriculture Minister must look at these,” he said.

JD(U) MP Veerendra Kumar said demonetisation had also contributed to the farm crisis. “Farm incomes crashed and farmers’ distress mounted, compounding already high suicide rates because of mass indebtedness. Though some States have decided to wave off farm loans, the Central Government has not supported any of the States,” he said.

‘Futures trading to blame’

CPI(M) MP KK Ragesh said middlemen and corporate houses were robbing farmers of prices due to them through speculative business and futures trading. “Also, the Centre’s import policy leads to the farmers not getting even the remunerative prices. At a time when there is a bumper production of wheat, the Centre slashed the import duty on it from 25 per cent to zero per cent. Why? Why did you allow the foreign players, and those who import commodities from foreign countries, to import and dump wheat in our country?” he asked.