Nagpur: Shetkari Sanghatana, the farmers’ outfit from Maharashtra, has put up a strong case for dismantling Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism before the Supreme Court appointed committee on the three farm laws. The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have also been demanding that government should make purchase at MSP mandatory even for private traders.
The Sanghatana’s former president Anil Ghanawat is now a member of the committee. He quit the post of president after taking over as a committee member. In last one week, the committee took views from different farmers’ outfits and farmer producers organizations (FPO) on the laws.
The Sanghatana was represented by Lalit Bahalle, who has taken over as the new president. The Sanghatana’s presentation says “it’s time that farmer of the country are convinced to say good bye to the era of restrictions, MSP, FCI, APMC etc.”
The Sanghatana has said before the committee that it would be immoral and undemocratic to make it mandatory for private traders to buy at MSP.
Referring to farmers from Punjab and Haryana, the presentation says “MSP procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has damaged the true and long term cause of the states’ farmers, by eroding water tables, soil health and fertilizer use. This is already unsustainable but farmers of the two states are blackmailed into producing the same crops despite invisible losses”.
For the contract farming laws, the Sanghatana has said it is heavily biased towards farmers. Such unilateralism may discourage sponsors who may want to engage farmers in contract farming.
Bahalle told TOI he has also gone on record before the committee that there should be no protectionism in the farm sector, as it should be open to global trade.
The committee, meanwhile, has issued a terse press release saying that it has interacted with members of 32 different farmers’ outfits and FPOs from states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Telangana, Bengal and Maharashtra. Meetings were also held with officials of state marketing boards, private mandis and food parks from, Gujarat, Haryana, J&K, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.