Farmers are disappointed with the Union Budget for no mention of legal guarantee of MSP on all crops and debt waiver — demands that have seen farmers camping on the borders of Punjab and Haryana for the last over five months under the ‘Dilli Chalo’ 2.0 protest.
“The Centre has ignored the long pending demand of legal right of MSP. After BJP failed to gain simple majority in the recent Lok Sabha elections and was forced to secure support from other parties, we harboured hopes that the govt will listen to farmers and frame pro-farmer policies.But it has again disappointed the farmers,” said farmer leader Sarvan Singh Pandher.
He said population of farmers and farm workers is nearly 70% in the country, who are directly or indirectly linked to agri or allied sector, but only 3.2% of the budget — Rs 1.52 lakh crore out of Rs 48 lakh crore — was allocated for agriculture. The budget for agriculture was 5.44% in 2019-20. “The BJP-led central govt seems not to have learnt any lessons even after getting rejected in many parliamentary constituencies where farmers have influence in the LS elections. The govt has not paid any heed to protests by farmers. It has also completely ignored Punjab and provided compensation only to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Farmers will not sit back. We will continue to struggle till the govt concedes to our demands,” said farm leader Balbir Singh Rajewal.
Legal right of MSP and debt waiver were the core issues during previous farm protest at Delhi borders in 2020-21. Central govt had then assured to form a panel to discuss aspects relating to MSP but Sanyukt Kisan Morcha had rejected that panel and only recently announced to resume the protests for realisation of these demands.
Bharat Krishak Samaj chairman Ajay Vir Jakhar said, “It is heartening to see budget expand from agricultural allocations to increased focus on skills, employment generation, youth, housing, sanitation to build human capacity and societal resilience”.
