Farmers protest: Farmer leader asks Centre to bring ordinance to give legal guarantee for MSP

Amid farmers protest farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday demanded that the Centre should bring an ordinance on giving a legal guarantee to MSP a key demand of farmers currently camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri points of the PunjabHaryana border reported news agency PTIThe demand comes a day before the fourth round of talks between farm leaders and Union ministers over their various demandsStating that the Centre has a right to take political decisions Pandher said If it Centre brings an ordinance and it can bring it overnight if it wants so If the government wants resolution of farmers protest then it should bring out an ordinance with an immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP then discussion can proceed further reported PTISpeaking to reporters at the Shambhu border Pandher said as far as the issue of modalities is concerned any ordinance has a sixmonth validityAs far as the demand for C2 plus 50 per cent as per the Swaminathan Commissions recommendation goes Pandher said that the government was giving a price according to A2 plus FL formula Under the same formula an ordinance can be brought he added reported PTIOn the issue of farm debt waiver Pandher said the government is saying that the loan amount has to be assessed The government can collect data from banks in this regard he said adding It is a question of political will powerThey the Centre are saying it has to be discussed with the states You leave aside the states You talk about the Centre and central banks and then finalise how to waive farmers debt said Pandher reported PTIThe other demands of farmers are also important he further saidFarmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal also said that the government should bring an ordinance for giving something to people of the country reported PTIThe government should bring the ordinance with such an intention that it is implemented with immediate effect and within six months it can be converted into a law and there is no problem in that said Dallewal who was spearheading the Delhi Chalo call along with Pandher reported PTIOn claims suggesting that giving the minimum support price MSP on all 23 crops will require a huge funds Dallewal said one study says that a sum of Rs 250 lakh crore was needed for thisAnother study suggests that only Rs 36000 crore is required claimed Dallewal reported PTIIf the government seriously looks at producers and consumers and gives less attention to corporates then the matter can be sorted out he said reported PTIHe also stressed that small agrobased industries should be promoted in villagesDallewal said the agriculture sector is generating 50 per cent employmentThe agriculture sector has 20 per cent share in the GDP and if the agriculture sector has 20 per cent share in the GDP then why is it difficult for the government to give Rs 250 lakh crore he asked reported PTIWe are demanding a law on the purchase of crops at an MSP Anybody buys a crop in any state but does not buy it at less than the MSP it is our demand he said reported PTIPandher said that the government was importing crops like pulses from the other countriesIf the government guarantees an MSP on crops like pulses farmers can produce them here he saidHe said that at present the rate of crops which the government buys at an MSP is lower in the market and the rate of other crops that the government does not buy at the assured price is higherUnion ministers Arjun Munda Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks The two sides met earlier on February 8 12 and 15 but those talks remained inconclusive reported PTIOn the fifth day of their Delhi Chalo march called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha NonPolitical and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha the farmers stayed put at the two border points of Punjab and Haryana as they press the Centre to accept their demands including a legal guarantee of an MSP for cropsBesides a legal guarantee for MSP the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commissions recommendations pension for farmers and farm labourers farm debt waiver no hike in electricity tariff withdrawal of police cases and justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 202021With inputs from PTI