Notice to state on MSP PIL

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 18

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday put the state of Punjab on notice on a petition filed in public interest for fixing minimum support price for “alternative crops” higher than MSP for paddy.

The petitioner-advocate, Charanpal Singh Bagri, asserted paddy was primarily creating threefold hurdles — fast depletion of underground drinkable water, pollution due to stubble or paddy straw burning and creation of financial burden on the state for storing excess paddy during the paddy season.

He added that farmers, therefore, should be provided new crops as per geographical location of the area by fixing MSP higher than paddy crop.

The farmers were also required to be encouraged to go in for short duration crops instead of the routine wheat-paddy cycle.

Bagri said Punjab with 1.5 per cent of the country’s total geographical area was producing nearly 50 per cent of the total foodgrain, but unfortunately the Centre did nothing for the progress and prosperity of the state.

He added that about 85 per cent of the state’s geographical area was under agriculture. Traditionally, farmers were following maize-wheat or sugarcane-maize-wheat cropping pattern. But during the last four decades they shifted to wheat-rice cropping pattern leading to increased demand for irrigation water.

“There were only 1.92 lakh shallow tube wells in the state during 1970. It increased to 6 lakh in 1980. Presently, there are more than 10 lakh tube wells in the state,” he submitted.

Farmers to protest in Delhi on July 20

Chandigarh: The BKU (Dakonda) as part of All Kisan Sangarsh Committee has announced to organise a protest march in Delhi on July 20 during the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. It is expected that two Bills related to farmers, one on debt relief and another on hike in MSP to Rs 2,250, will be tabled in Parliament. Farmer organisations are demanding a complete debt waiver and hike in paddy MSP to Rs 2,250. Union general secretary Jagmohan Singh appealed to all farmers to participate in the march. tns