While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to address a ‘Kisan Kalyan’ rally to Malot town of Punjab on July 11 to claim credit for recently enhanced Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 23 Kharif season crops including paddy, farmers in Punjab under several farm outfits are planning a massive agitation against the government soon after. Farmer organisations will be participating in the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) meeting on July 13 and 14 to chalk out the agitation programme pertaining to MSP and the C2 (comprehensive cost) formula.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakunda), General Secretary, Jagmohan Singh that he along with several other leaders of Punjab based farm organisations are going to participate in these meetings to be held on July 13-14.
He added that AIKSCC is an umbrella organisation of 194 Kisan sangathans had initiated a nationwide campaign for the MSP to be fixed with at least 50 per cent profit over the production cost to be calculated as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan commission — the comprehensive cost known as C2.
AIKSCC will also demand from the government that no crop would be sold below the announced MSP as farmers are forced to sell the crop much below the MSP, said Dr Satnam Singh Ajnala, President Jamhoori Kisan Sabha.
“BJP in its 2014 election manifesto had announced to implement MSP at C2 but now it took U-turn and gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2015 that the payment of 50 per cent profit over cost was not possible and now government after recent enhancement of MSP has been claiming that it had implemented,” said Jagmohan, adding that it is a betrayal to the farmers.
He said that this recent enhancement of MSP is not acceptable to them unless C2 formula is not implemented.