Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday demanded that Punjab government agencies should procure maize at minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,090 per quintal “as promised by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to save farmers from going in for distress sales”.

In a statement, the SAD president said farmers, who had been taken in by the announcement of the CM that maize would be procured at MSP, were in dire straits with no takers for their crop, forcing farmers to sell their produce at Rs 500 to Rs 600 per quintal less than the MSP to private traders.

Demanding immediate procurement of the entire maize crop on MSP, Badal said, “Failing to do so will deal a severe blow to the diversification attempts of the Punjab government”.

He said the CM had announced with much fanfare that maize, sunflower and pulses would be procured on MSP due to which farmers had increased the acreage under these crops.

“Now when the time has come to procure the produce, the Aam Aadmi Party government has run away from its responsibility,” the SAD chief said.

Badal demanded that besides procuring maize at MSP, the government should also compensate farmers for the loss suffered by them in selling short to private traders.“The government should release this compensation immediately,” he added.

The SAD president also asked the chief minister not to make hollow promises he had no intention of fulfilling. He said last year farmers who had believed in the promise made by the chief minister that the state would purchase their Moong crop had suffered heavily.

“Farmers responded eagerly to the CM appeal to sow Moong and the area under the pulse also increased by 55 per cent. However there were no takers for the Moong once it came to the market leading to huge losses with many farmers even failing to recover their investment costs,” he added.

Asking the government to take corrective steps immediately, Badal also asked the chief minister to apologize to the farming community for playing with their emotions.

He said the CM had not only cheated farmers but had compounded the betrayal by deriving cheap publicity by hard selling the “initiative” through multi-crore advertisements.