‘Rather than facilitating farmers, govt harassing them through experiments’: Hooda, Selja slam Haryana govt

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and HPCC chief Kumari Selja on Thursday slammed the BJP-JJP government for increasing the price of DAP fertiliser by Rs 700 and demanded an immediate rollback.

Hooda began his tour of grain markets on Thursday. “I visited various grain markets and interacted with farmers. Their condition is deplorable. Rather than facilitating the farmers, the government’s experiments are causing immense harassment to them,” he said.

“In many places, farmers who are reaching the market with their crops, are being harassed in the name of moisture, not registering on the web portal or that the server was down. The government should cooperate with farmers, and not do new experiments with them every day. The government should immediately stop its excuses and procure grains from farmers who are reaching the market with their crops,” he added.

Hooda also opposed decision to reduce the standard limit of moisture in wheat from 14 per cent to 12 per cent. “The government has decided to reduce the moisture content so that it does not have to pay MSP to farmers. Now wheat will be purchased in the mandis where the moisture will be less than 12 per cent. Earlier, wheat with moisture up to 14 per cent was also procured,” he said.

“Not only this, earlier 0.75 per cent mixed quantity (rye, mustard, chaff, etc.) was allowed in a quintal but this has been reduced to 0.50 per cent, or 500 grams in a quintal. Farmers will have to face heavy economic losses due to this move. The government should immediately withdraw this decision,” he added.

“The BJP government has always had an anti-farmer attitude. The anti-farmer attitude is visible in how the government is continuously increasing input farm costs despite trying to mislead the farmers through its false assurance of doubling the income of farmers. The government has decided to increase the rate of DAP fertiliser by Rs 700. The farmers are already suffering because of rising costs of petrol and diesel. This is the first time in history when a government has enforced such a huge increase in the price of DAP and the government should take it back immediately,” the Leader of Opposition said.

Hooda said that “the present government is extracting every penny it can from the farmers in the name of GST on fertilisers, seeds, electricity, medicines, petrol-diesel and agricultural implements”, adding that the government “falls silent on the issue of MSP which has forced farmers to agitate and they have launched a satyagraha to get their legitimate demands agreed”.

On Thursday, he visited grain markets in Ladwa, Babain and Thanesar of Kurukshetra too.

Selja too attacked the BJP government for increase in DAP fertiliser prices. “Price of 50 kg DAP fertiliser has been increased by 58.33 per cent. A 50 kg bag of DAP which used to cost the farmer Rs 1,200 has now been priced at Rs 1900. Similarly, the price of 50 kg bag of NPK has been increased by up to Rs 615. The price of DAP and NPK has doubled in seven years of the BJP government. Earlier a bag of urea used to be 50 kg, the prices of which were increased and the weight was reduced to 45 kg,” she said.