Cong’s MSP hike superior to BJP’s, says Hooda

Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the BJP government is nowhere near Congress in terms of increasing MSP and giving MSP to farmers.

“Government figures themselves are proof of the fact that MSP increased many times during the Congress’ tenure than the BJP government. BJP impeded the pace of MSP increase and pushed the farmers into losses. This is the reason why today farmers of the entire country including Haryana are agitating,” he said.

Listening to the demands and problems of the farmers at his residence, Hooda presented the MSP figures and said when Congress came to power in 2004-05, the rate of wheat was only Rs 640.

“Congress brought it to Rs 1450 per quintal. It increased the rate by 126.5%. But during the entire tenure of BJP, till date, the rate of wheat has increased by only 51.7%. That is less than half as compared to Congress,” he stated. Similarly, if we talk about paddy, Congress increased the rate by two-and-a-half times – from Rs 560 to Rs 1360. Congress increased the rate by 143%. “But BJP increased the rate by 60%, which is less than half as compared to Congress,” he stated.

Hooda said even in the matter of providing MSP to the farmers, the BJP government is far behind the Congress.

“The reason for this is that Congress understands the true meaning and utility of MSP. Therefore, during our tenure, we made a system that as soon as the crop arrives in the market, the government agencies will immediately start purchasing it,” he said, outlining the policy of the previous Congress government.

“Due to this, the prices of the crop in the market used to increase automatically and private agencies also had to buy the crop of the farmers at MSP or higher rate. In this way, most of the farmers of the state used to get a fair price for their crops,” he stated.