The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab faced a grilling in the State Assembly over the issue of guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP). Farmers from Punjab have been protesting over MSP at barricades leading to Delhi since February 13.
Opposition parties have accused the AAP of abandoning its pre-poll promise of providing MSP on crops to farmers. The Budget session which is to begin on March 1 will see the issue being raised vehemently by the Opposition parties. On February 22, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded the MSP and assured marketing on 22 crops be legislated into a legal guarantee during the upcoming Assembly session.
“Giving MSP and assured marketing on 22 crops after forming the government was a guarantee given by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the run-up to the 2022 poll. If the Chief Minister brings legislation to make this a legal guarantee, the SAD will wholeheartedly support that legislation,” said SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Poll promise
In the course of campaigning for the 2022 State Assembly election, AAP leaders including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had publicly backed the procurement of 22 crops at MSP and promised that the government would sanction the purchase after they came to power.
The Leader of the Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress, accused the Chief Minister and Minister Anmol Gagan Mann, of going back on their promise to provide MSP on 22 crops.
Protesting farmers from Punjab have been camping on two stretches— Shambhu-Ambala and Khanauri-Jind— on the boundary between Haryana and Punjab, since February 13. Their Delhi Chalo march was halted before it entered Haryana. The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) — the two umbrella bodies of around 200 farmers’ and farm labourer unions — had called for a siege of the national capital, Delhi, to press for fulfilment of their demands, a legal guarantee for MSP and farm loan waiver among others.
