Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to double the income of the farmers, but have ended up doubling the cost of the farmer.
Addressing a public meeting in Kurukshetra, Hood said the value added tax (VAT) on diesel which was just 8.9 per cent during the Congress government but was increased by the BJP to more than double.
“Similarly, during the Congress government, no tax was levied on agricultural items, but the Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party (BJP-JJP) government in Haryana imposed tax on everything from tractor parts to fertilizers, medicines and pesticides,” he said
“In this way the government is increasing the cost of farming, but there is only a marginal increase in the rate of crops like the price of sugarcane,” Hooda added.
He said today farmers’ potatoes are being sold at rates ranging from 50 paise to Rs 1.25 per kilogram while the cost of growing it is seven to eight rupees. Because of this, the farmers are facing huge losses, the Congress leader said.
Hooda said the price of potato had gone down once during the Congress government and the government had started the export of potatoes to provide a fair price to the farmers. Similarly, when the prices of paddy started falling during the Congress government, the government started exports, due to which the farmers got record highest rate of paddy at that time, he said.
The former CM said instead of giving fair rates to the farmers for their crops, the BJP-JJP coalition government in Haryana is only talking about the Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana.
Through this scheme, the loss of a few farmers is compensated to some extent by finding an average, but most farmers are only looking at the government to compensate the total loss suffered by the farmer, instead of trapping them in the web of averages and leaving them to fend for themselves.