Farmer leader Pandher asks Centre to bring ordinance to give legal guarantee for MSP
Demand comes a day before the fourth round of talks between farm leaders and Union ministers; farmers stayed put at Shambhu and Khanauri
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday demanded that the Centre bring an ordinance on giving a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP), a key demand of farmers camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri points of the Punjab-Haryana border.
The demand comes a day before the fourth round of talks between farm leaders and Union ministers over their demands.
Stating 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.”
Speaking to reporters at the Shambhu border, Pandher said as far as the issue of modalities is concerned, any ordinance has six-month validity.
On the demand for “C2 plus 50 per cent” according to the Swaminathan Commission’s 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 said.
On 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. They (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,” he said.
Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal said that the government should bring an ordinance for “giving something to people of the country”.
“The 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 is spearheading the Dilli Chalo call along with Pandher.
Union 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 the talks remained inconclusive.
On the fifth day of their march -- called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha -- the farmers stayed put at Shambhu and Khanauri, the two border points of Punjab and Haryana, as they press the Centre to accept their demands.
Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and justice for 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 the agitation in 2020-21.
