Congress party leaders on Friday said that the Haryana government had decided to increase the market fee and rural development fee on paddy, which had yet again revealed the “anti-farmer” attitude of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) coalition.
The Congress party’s national general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the decision. He said the government’s move to increase the market fee and the Haryana Rural Development Fund fee on all varieties of paddy is a short-sighted decision in a pandemic. “After this decision, the farmers of Haryana will be compelled either to sell off their crops in the neighbouring States’ agricultural mandis or they will have to sell paddy to traders at a lower price,” he said.
Mr. Surjewala said that, on one hand, the government insisted that the grain markets were not being abolished, but the decisions being taken by the State government in the name of reducing the losses of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board were clearly indicative of its intention to eliminate mandis and “push the farm business to big private players”.
Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that after inflation, recession and the massive increase in petrol and diesel prices, the government had placed another burden on the farmers. “The fees levied by the Haryana government on paddy are much higher as compared to the neighbouring States. In such a situation, traders would prefer to do business in other states instead of Haryana and this would lead to a direct loss to the market system and farmers of the State,” he said.
Congress State president Kumari Selja said the government’s decision to increase the market fee on paddy purchase would hit farmers badly. She said even rice traders would suffer a big blow. Such decisions make it evident that the State government was not concerned with securing the interests of anyone, she alleged.
