Cong wants to milk relief package for farmers
Two months after PM Manmohan Singh announced a package for farmers in distress in 31 districts across four states during his visit to the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra, the Congress party is keen that the finer details of the package be made pub...
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Two months after PM Manmohan Singh announced a package for farmers in distress in 31 districts across four states during his visit to the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra, the Congress party is keen that the finer details of the package be made public.
Senior Congress leaders accompanied by the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs of the four states — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala — met the PM on Thursday to make this demand. This comes even as the party gears up for a meeting of Congress chief ministers in September where agriculture is slated to be one of the main items on the discussion table.
Thursday’s meeting could be viewed as an addition to the spurt in ‘farmer-centric’ initiatives being mooted by the Congress in the past few weeks. Other than discussing the matter at the CMs conclave, the Congress is also raising the issue of land oustees — mainly farmers — who have lost their properties to development projects and SEZ activity.
This development could be viewed as a spin-off of the opinions expressed during the discussions on the plight of farmers held in Parliament recently. The government had faced a sharp attack from the entire political spectrum on the increasing number of farmers’ suicides, as well as the declining conditions of agriculture in the country. It has also been under a sustained attack from Left parties on the issue.
The Left has been demanding that the government bring in a law for protecting the interests of agricultural workers. It has also asked that the recommendation of the MS Swaminathan Commission on farmers be accepted — a view that has found favour with Congress President Sonia Gandhi as well. Ms Gandhi had in her address to the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) last month made a special mention of the plight of farmers.
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Given this situation, Thursday’s forty-minute meeting with the PM is yet another attempt by the party to convey its stand to a government — that is seen by many within the Congress — as being too obsessed with growth figures and statistics. Congress sources said the agenda for the meeting was to remind the government that the promises made by it should be evident “on the ground”. ”We wanted to remind the government that the nuts and bolts of the package had to be spelt out, ” AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh in charge of Andra Pradesh said.
The meeting was also attended by AICC general secretary in charge of Maharashtra Margaret Alva as well as the minister of state in the PMO Prithviraj Chauhan. Responding to their demand for the ”nitty gritty” of schemes to be spelt out, the PM assured the Congress delegation that the government was working on it.
”He told us that he was aware of the need for state leaders to be involved in the framing of the policies, ” a leader who attended the meeting said. The PM has also reportedly asked Mr Chauhan to co-ordinate with state leaders on the issue.
In the case of Maharashtra, Ms Alva said the government had announced a package amounting to Rs 3,750 crore, however, most of it would go to the banks for debt rescheduling and into existing irrigation schemes. ”I wanted to know what amount of this grant would find its way into the hands of the farmer,” she said.
According to her, nearly Rs 900 crore in the package had been earmarked for seeds, fertilisers and compensation. ”We asked the government to act on this immediately,” she said.
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