Sanyukat Kisan Morcha calls for protest on June 27 over MSP denial
The Sanyukat Kisan Morcha (SKM) has called upon farmers across the state to participate in a march on June 27 to protest the denial of remunerative prices for the farm produce at mandis across Punjab. The protest march from Mohali would proceed towards Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s office in Chandigarh where a comprehensive memorandum would be presented to flag the plight of Punjabi farmers.
During an online meeting of the state committee of the SKM, the union took a strong exception to reports about tillers being fleeced by private traders and agencies’ purchase of maize and moong crops much below the MSP (minimum support price) fixed by the government.
SKM committee member and BKU-(Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal said the representative gathering of 33 farm organisations — comprising the SKM — had unanimously decided to launch a mass agitation against the failure of both the Centre and the state government to ensure the purchase of different crops at the MSP fixed by the government.
“In the wake of complaints about distress sale of maize at different mandis across the state, the SKM has given call for a protest march as the initial phase of the intended state-level protest,” said Lakhowal adding that farmers had also complained that ‘moong’ crop was also not being purchased at the MSP, much to the dismay of the producers,” Lakhowal added.
He said the SKM had called out the state government for failing to fulfil its commitment of purchasing both maize and moong crops if the farmers would opt to cultivate those crops in order to save water on paddy.
“While a vast number of farmers have stuck to cultivating diversified crops such as maize and moong based on the suggestion of the government, the cultivators have been left in the lurch as both maize and moong have failed to fetch the MSP for the second year in a row,” rued the SKM leader.
“The SKM leadership resolved to put up a united fight against mass exploitation and fleecing of maize and moong producers at the hands of traders and agencies by piling pressure on the government to take effective measures for ensuring the purchase of the crops arriving at mandis at the MSP,” added Lakhowal.
He warned that depending on the response of the state government, the central committee of the SKM would reconvene and chalk out a strategy for intensifying the agitation, if warranted.
Flags fleecing of tillers
- The union took a strong exception to reports about tillers being fleeced by private traders and agencies’ purchase of maize and moong crops much below the MSP (minimum support price) fixed by the government
- The SKM had called out the state government for failing to fulfil its commitment of purchasing both maize and moong crops if the farmers would opt to cultivate those crops
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