Farmers deprived of MSP, fertilisers, and seeds under BJP rule: Former Haryana CM Hooda

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday said that ever since the BJP came to power, farmers have been forced to desperately wait for MSP, fertilisers, and seeds. Today the situation is such that fertilizers have to be distributed to farmers under police protection. In addition, farmers are getting MSP neither for maize nor for sunflower, he said.

Due to the shortage of fertilisers, farmers are facing extreme mismanagement, black marketing and loss in production. Sowing of Kharif crops is becoming more difficult for farmers with each passing year. Farmers are facing four times more problems under the double-engine government in Haryana, said Hooda in a statement.

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Hooda said that despite the existence of BJP governments both at the Centre and the state level, less than half the stock of fertilisers to be received from the Centre for the Kharif crop has been supplied. Haryana was supposed to receive about 14 lakh metric tonnes of fertiliser, but less than 6 lakh metric tonnes of fertiliser have been made available right now.

Hooda, expressing serious concern over the shortage, said that the season of paddy transplantation has started, but the farmers are still running from pillar to post for fertilisers. The government, as usual, sits idle. Farmers have to face a shortage of fertilisers in every crop season because the BJP government does not make any arrangements in time, he alleged.

The former CM said that this is the first government in the history of the state during whose tenure fertilisers have had to be distributed from police stations. Every season, farmers, their families, women and even children wait for multiple days in long queues; even then, DAP and urea are not available at the requisite time.

Not only this, but farmers who have reached the mandis with harvested maize and sunflowers continue to wait for purchase. But government agencies are not ready to buy. As a result, they have to sell the crop at a rate that is Rs 1000-1500 lower than the MSP, he said.