The Punjab government’s suggestion to make crops other than paddy viable by providing incentives to farmers in order to stop stubble burning has sparked a war of words in the state with the Opposition accusing the Bhagwant Singh Mann government of making a case for stopping the minimum support price (MSP) on paddy.

The row erupted after Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring claimed that the new Advocate General (AG) Gurminder Singh has appealed to the Supreme Court to abolish the MSP on paddy.

“…Punjab is being trapped in a deep conspiracy. First, instead of denying the withdrawal of SYL, they argued to find a solution by sitting down, and now openly asking to end the MSP,” Warring said on X.

Describing the Congress leader as a ‘chronic liar’, Chief Minister Mann on Thursday slammed him for misleading the people on the issue for scoring brownie points before the media.

The CM said the state government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to secure the interests of the state. Citing the affidavit, Mann said the state government has submitted that incentives by the Central government for a period of 40 years had led to the adoption of the cultivation of paddy in the state which is providing remunerative pricing under MSP.

The CM said the affidavit has further submitted that in order to divert and diversify cropping pattern from paddy to other crops, assured MSP and other incentives will have to be provided to the farmers to make it viable for them to adopt other crops.
Mann said the state government had pleaded that a sustainable campaign will be required for changing the behavioral pattern of the farmers. He said his government had submitted that the implementation of these measures will go a long way in management of crop residue.

Joining the issue, Shiromani Akali Dal Senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia termed the stand of the Aam Aadmi Party government in the Supreme Court “on stopping MSP on Paddy as the biggest betrayal with farmers even as the party asked the CM to tell farmers why his government is repeatedly backstabbing them”.

Majithia said the stand of the Punjab government in the Supreme Court on the issue of stubble burning has shocked all Punjabis. He said the Mann government has advocated discontinuing MSP on paddy for farmers.

He said that earlier Mann had betrayed farmers by announcing MSP for Moong (green gram) and when farmers showed faith in his words and sowed Moong in their farms, more than 85 per cent of the produce was not procured on MSP and farmers were left on the mercy of private traders to sell their crop.

The SAD leader said that Bhagwant Mann has betrayed farmers time and again by not paying compensation for successive crop losses during the last one-and-a-half year. He said after demanding stoppage of MSP on Paddy, Mann ordered registration of cases against farmers who burnt their paddy stubble as the AAP government failed to provide them with the requisite machinery to avoid paddy burning.