CHANDIGARH: Both the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab have been protesting against the Centre’s new agriculture laws, especially for legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP), but their governments in the state have failed to provide MSP to farmers on sunflower and maize since 2015 despite several assurances to the Punjab and Haryana high court.
The matter is pending before the high court since 2014-15 in the wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a group of Punjab and Haryana farmers, directing the states and their nodal agencies to purchase agriculture produce other than rice and wheat on MSP. In the PIL, directions were sought for implementation of the agriculture produce pricing policy of the Centre.
On May 26, 2015, the state governments of Punjab and Haryana agreed to give MSP on purchase of sunflower and maize and the same was recorded in the order. Subsequently, the Punjab government led by SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal declined to procure sunflower seeds and for this the state was reprimanded by the high court in its order dated July 14, 2015.
Haryana started purchasing these crops on MSP, but Punjab remained undecided.
Contempt plea filed by petitioners against Punjab
The central government even gave an undertaking that whatever payments are to be made by the Punjab to the farmers for MSP, the same amount would be reimbursed to the state within 10 days as per policy, and this has also been followed in Haryana.
In the meantime, the government in Punjab changed and the Congress-led by Captain Amarinder Singh came into power in March 2017. However, indecisiveness over payment of MSP for maize and sunflower continued.
Hearing the matter on July 31, 2017, HC even summoned senior functionaries of the Centre and the state. While Haryana submitted figures regarding procurement of sunflower on MSP, Punjab gave an undertaking that it would also procure sunflower under PSS scheme. Yet Punjab failed again and HC recorded its displeasure on August 17, 2017.
In 2018 again, the Union government submitted its proposal for procurement of sunflower and maize on MSP, nothing was done by the Punjab government. During the hearing of the case, several affidavits were filed by Punjab farmers, claiming that they had suffered losses because of non-payment of MSP by Punjab on maize and sunflower.
A contempt petition was also filed by the petitioners on April 26, 2019 against Punjab for non-procurement of maize and sunflower for which it had given an undertaking to the court. The same is pending before the HC at present.
Chetan Mittal, senior advocate and assistant solicitor general of India, who has been representing the Centre in the case, said in the latest affidavit on August 19, 2020, that no proposal from Punjab to procure maize had been received. “All these facts and records received from the Centre shows that no effort has been done by the state of Punjab and its agencies, including Markfed, Punjab Agro, which have remained non-responsive regarding MSP on these two crops,” said Mittal.