BJP seeks JPC to study farmers' suicides

Dehradun Sep 8 (UNI) The BJP Executive today asked the government to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Farmers Suicide for evolving a holistic response to address the multi-dimensional crisis afflicting the agriculture and food security situation in the country.

In a resolution adopted at the BJP National Executive, the party described the suicidal trend among farmers as a 'simmering volcano' and cautioned unless immediate corrective measures were taken, it would explode. The party urged the government to act upon the five suggestions made by National Commission on Farmers, headed by noted agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan, which among other things had suggested the 11th Five Year Plan to consider setting up of risk stabilisation fund, farm centric minimum support price and market intervention scheme.

The party also sought massive investments in rural infrastructure like irrigation, drainage, flood control, the real answers besides providing cheaper and timely credit, senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, who moved the resolution, told mediapersons.

The party also called for measures like water harvesting, conservation, and improvement in organic matter and micro-nutrient content. Interest rates on agricultural loans should be reviewed and gradually brought down, the party said, noting that Karnataka government had subsidised the interest rates at four per cent up to a loan of Rs 300,000. This experiment needs to be examined at the national level, it suggested.

Hitting out strongly against the piece meal approach of the government, the party said there was a need for comprehensive national package covering timely rural credit, waiver of interest for all affected farmers, particularly those in rain fed areas, rescheduling of loans and sanction of fresh loans. The Centre and the states should together implement a comprehensive income insurance scheme and make available quality seeds and offer remunerative prices for the produce.

Mr Naidu said the party had noted with 'anger and regret' on how domestic farmers were allowed to be preyed on by the private traders, who offered them a little more money than the support price and hoarded up the entire stock. The minimum support price offered was around Rs 650 a quintal, as against Rs 900 to 1000 spent on import of wheat, he said. The party also said that there should be no mismatch in the procurement figure and prices paid by the consumer for food grains.

Regretting that the Centre was politicising even natural disasters and discriminating against the people in the BJP-ruled states in distributing assistance to states to face the situation, he wondered Congress President Sonia Gandhi was touring the affected areas along with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee while it was the responsibility was of Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.

Taking a poke at the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Vidarbha package, Mr Naidu said over 100 farmers had committed suicides after his visit two months ago and the package did not assist any farmer in distress. ''It was only a 'notional package' while the country cried for a national package,'' he remarked.

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