Cong announces legal guarantee of MSP under C2 formula, Hooda presents draft during party convention at Raipur

Chandigarh: The Congress on Sunday announced that farmers will be given MSP with legal guarantee under C2 formula of Swaminathan Commission. Not only loan waiver, the party would work towards complete debt relief of farmers and making agriculture a profitable business. Along with this, agriculture will also be given government assistance and banking concessions like industry.

These goals have been set by the party in the ongoing 85th General Convention of the Indian National Congress in Raipur. The Committee on Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, formed under the leadership of former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, presented its draft in the session and gave detailed information about all the goals of the party.

In his address, Hooda said due to the insensitivity of the present government, the farmer is sad and agitated and is being forced to commit suicide. “Today the farmer of India is neither happy nor prosperous. But the farmer is not destitute, the farmer is not poor, the farmer is silent but not lost his voice. The farmer is sleeping, but not dead. When the sweat of the farmers falls on the ground, mother earth turns it into gold, but when the blood of the farmer mixes with the soil, a revolution is born. The Congress party shares the voice and sufferings of the farmers,” he said.

The draft said the country cannot progress without improving the condition of the farmers and giving farmers the right and law of MSP is most important. Buying agricultural produce at a price less than MSP should be a punishable offence.

Not only this, the price of the crop should be fixed by adding 50 per cent profit on C2 cost, as recommended in 2010 by the Swaminathan Commission and the Group of Chief Ministers headed by the then Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The scope of MSP should be further increased and implemented on other crops as well. From ginger, garlic, turmeric, chillies to horticulture, all agricultural products should get guaranteed price cover.

Hooda said the Congress expresses deep concern over the alarmingly increasing debt burden on the farmers, which is forcing many farmers to commit suicide.

The Congress has recommended setting up of a National Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission in the agriculture draft, which can redress farmers’ debt-related complaints, as is done in the case of industrial loans.