Phundkar demands white paper on farmer relief packages

Nagpur, Nov 29 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Pandurang Phundkar today demanded that the state government issue a white paper on the first day of the forthcoming winter session of the Legislature on the implementation of the two relief packages for farmers in Vidarbha.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Phundkar said the white paper must contain information about how many farmers were actually benefitted from the relief packages, one announced by the state government in December last, and the other announced by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on July 1 last during his visit to the region. The winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature is slated to begin here on December 4.

Mr Phundkar alleged that Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had misled the Parliament and the country with his claim that the incidence of farmers' suicides in the region had decreased. The relief packages of the state government and the Prime Minister had proven to be ineffective in alleviating the suffering of the farmers in Vidarbha, he said.

He also demanded complete loan waiver for farmers in the region, a price of Rs 2,700 per quintal for cotton under the Monopoly Procurement Scheme and a compensation of Rs 25,000 per hectare to farmers for the damage caused during the recent floods in the state.

Besides farmers' suicides and cotton prices, the issues that the opposition would raise during the winter session of the legislature were the developmental backlog in Vidarbha, the law and order situation, load shedding and inflation, Mr Phundkar said.

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