Govt has abandoned its duty towards farmers in Budget 2023: SKM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Feb, 2023 01:40 PM
New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Farmers' body Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Wednesday expressed shock and bewilderment at the Union Budget 2023.
"While it is universally known that farming and farmers have been economically neglected by the BJP-led Union Government, the SKM had expected that after the sustained and determined protest of the farmers at Delhi, the party in power would appreciate the importance of the farm sector and the need to secure income and future of the rural farming community, who form the bulk of India's population. Instead, the Union Budget 2023 is the most anti-farmer budget," it said in a statement
It said that the allocation on agriculture and allied sectors has been reduced from 3.84 per cent (BE 2022) to 3.20 per cent (BE 2023) of the total budget and the allocation on rural development has also been reduced from 5.81 per cent (RE 2022) to 5.29 per cent (BE 2023) of the total budget.
"With such massive reductions, the intent of the government is clear: to squeeze out the lifeblood from farming sector and thereby the farmers of India. Union Budget 2023 also hides more than it reveals but the truth is glaring and cannot be camouflaged. Union Budget 2023 is silent on doubling farmers Income. There were no figures given in the Budget," it added.
SKM said that Union Budget 2023 is silent on the status of minimum support price (MSP) on crops as per recommendation of M.S. Swaminathan Commission and what shall be done to ensure that farmers get legal guarantee of MSP.
"While the government has irrationally resisted the demands of farmers for MSP and its guarantee, this Budget has removed even the fig-leaf with which the govt was trying to cover its meagre efforts to ensure that farmers get MSP. Flagship schemes like PM-Asha have seen a steady decline in allocation," it said.
The farmers' body claimed that the Price Support Scheme (PSS) and MIS (Market Intervention Scheme) was reduced from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 1,500 crore in 2022 and this year it is an unimaginable Rs 10 lakh. "In effect, the govt has buried ASHA, PSS and MIS and with that the fate of farmers getting MSP has been buried."
About PM Fasal Bima Yojna, the SKM said that in 2022, the allocation was Rs 15,500 crore but this year it has been reduced to Rs.13,625 crore.
"The government is drastically hacking the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) that provides critical income support to rural workers. In 2022, the budget allocation was Rs 73,000 crore but in the face of rural joblessness and restless demand, the government was forced to spend Rs 90,000 crore. Since the general economy and especially the rural economy is still in deep crisis, it is unbelievable that the government has hacked down the allocation of MNREGS to Rs 60,000 crore, a dramatic cut of Rs 30,000 crore," it said.
SKM claimed that the Government is grandly announcing new funds like Agriculture Accelerator Fund even as earlier announcements have been forgotten and lost. "It may be recalled that the government had announced with much fanfare the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore; after 3 years it was found that only 10 per cent of this fund had been actually disbursed," it claimed.
"SKM demands that the government stops fooling farmers and seriously focuses on resolving the critical issues of farmers like legal guarantee of MSP, crop insurance, reduction of input costs and steady availability of inputs," it added.
During deliberations, the Chief Minister envisaged opportunities for mutual collaboration in business and solutions. He said that the alliance could provide on-field handholding to Punjab farmers in best practices of crop management.
Balkaur Singh, whose son was shot dead in daylight on May 29 close to his Moosa village in Punjab on May 28, had complained of uneasiness on Thursday night following which he was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala from where he was shifted to the PGIMER here.
Majithia told the media here that this was also necessary because the AAP government had neither made the FIR registered in this case public even after 24 hours, nor taken any action against any BJP leader or middlemen involved.
The matter came to the fore after the victim narrated the ordeal to her parents who rescued her and later approached the Women police station at Gurugram's Sector-51 and registered a case against the accused on Wednesday. The victim told the police that she had met Pooja at a Gurugram mall a month ago. Pooja had offered her a job at a doctor's clinic.
The local people and Bishal's family members claimed that he was found with multiple wounds on Wednesday. It is alleged that Bishal was killed for not agreeing to convert to Christianity in order to marry his tribal girlfriend. Though the police are yet to confirm whether the youth was killed or committed suicide, they have arrested five people in connection with the case.
According to a source with the Ministry, the diplomats see it as a question of credibility and said that such tall claims should be avoided as it hurts the credibility of the country and the government too. The source said that it has left the diplomats embarrassed.
