Punjab Newsline, New Delhi, Feburary 1-
Leader of Opposition, Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa said that FM Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that agriculture is India’s first engine for growth. It is a welcome move that this government has finally understood the importance of our farmers’ to India’s growth story, however, the budget apart from the acknowledgement fails to offer anything for our farmers. It is more a betrayal to our farmers’ then a forward looking budget.
Bajwa said that there is no mention of giving the Minimum Support Price (MSP) a legal backing – a demand of crores of farmers across India. In fact for over a year, the farmers of India stood against the Union Government’s atrocious farm laws and the MSP was a key pillar of their demands. He said that, roughly 57 per cent of all Indians still rely on the agriculture sector for their sustenance. By the government’s own statistics, 55.4 per cent of all farmers in the 2021-2022 have outstanding debts.
Bajwa said, the average debt for an agricultural household is roughly Rs. 91,000. Despite these facts, the Union Government has made no announcement regarding loan waivers for our farmers’ or any plan to suitably increase the farmers’ income.