Chandigarh, September 20: The first major offensive against the six-month-old Capt Amarinder Singh government has been launched by farmers — the vote bank that had helped the Congress storm to power.
From coercion to arrest, from negotiations to loosening strings of the near-empty purses, the government is trying every trick in the book to pacify the peasantry.
They have all waged a war against the government over unfulfilled promises, be it sugarcane and potato growers, small and marginal farmers awaiting a loan waiver, or the families of indebted ones who committed suicide.
Nobody from the ruling party has reached out to the protesting farmers so far. Amid the political disconnect with the rural masses, the bureaucrats have apparently failed to convince the agitators.
The dharna outside the Chief Minister’s house in Patiala stands as scheduled, starting on September 22, even as the CM, who holds the Agriculture portfolio, has been out of the state for the past 10 days.
Potato growers have laid siege to Chandigarh’s outskirts, dumping their produce on the road due to poor prices (down to Rs70 for a 50-kg bag). Sugarcane growers are awaiting dues of the 2016-17 crushing season, hoping that the State Advised Price (SAP) on cane is hiked this year (for three years, it has virtually remained static at Rs285, Rs290 and Rs295 per quintal), even as the sugar prices continue to shoot up, ringing in profits for mills owned by politicians.
A major challenge for the government is to roll out the much-hyped debt waiver scheme. Suicides by indebted farmers have been on the rise, but even relief has not been disbursed to the bereaved families.
Top functionaries in the government admit that there is a need for farmers’ handholding by the rulers of a largely agrarian state. Apparently, the only “bureaucratic solution” being offered is a slight increase in the SAP of sugarcane, and implementing the debt relief scheme in instalments.
Once the Cabinet gives its nod tomorrow to notify the scheme, the government proposes to start giving relief in tranches, since there is no money to do it in one go. Each instalment will cater to a section of indebted farmers. “Those who have availed loans of up to Rs2 lakh from cooperative banks will be the first to get relief,” a senior government functionary told The Tribune.
After hassle-free wheat procurement, the government wants to ensure that paddy is procured smoothly too. Efforts are on to get the cash credit limit of Rs32,000 crore released.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
