Chandigarh:The Congress party on Wednesday released a booklet on the issues and challenges of farming community, titled ‘Aamdani na hui doguni, dard sau guna” (Incomes have not doubled but the pain has increased a hundred times).
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu at a joint press conference said the BJP had failed to double farmers’ income and had burdened them with additional taxes on farm inputs and given the farmer community pain due to the farm laws.
Presenting farmer model, Sidhu said that if the Congress government comes into power, Baba Nanak stores will be opened in every mall which will create employment opportunities for youths.
Sidhu also said that Punjab will bring MSP to itself, and usher in 'Yellow Revolution', "We will not remain dependent on the Centre. In Punjab, a legal guarantee of MSP will be given on pulses, oilseeds, and maize. Oil worth Rs 75,000 crores and pulses worth Rs 1 lakh crore are imported in the country. "We will buy these through the PUNSUP scheme and then sell them further."
Sidhu talked about introducing a 'market intervention scheme' in Punjab under which if a farmer's crop is sold at less than the fixed rate, then the government will pay for it. The farmer will get the freedom to keep the crop in the Warehousing Corporation and Cold storage will be built in every 5 to 10 villages. Its power will not be in the hands of the bureaucracy like in the earlier Act introduced by the Centre, he added.
Targeting Centre. Sidhu alleged that money was taken out of the pockets of farmers in the name of crop insurance. Forgery of Rs 30,000 crores took place in 2020-21 and the profit of crores was delivered to the corporate house.
Read: Congress playing safe in Punjab, to contest under 'collective leadership'
