People's Democracy

CKC RESOLUTION ON PM’s VIDARBHA VISIT

Too Little Help Given Too Late

THE Central Kisan Committee (CKC) of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) welcomes the visit of prime minister Manmohan Singh to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, which has been reeling under peasant suicides and rural distress. The visit of the prime minister, where he personally met and heard the woes of several rural families, signified that the central government has recognised the existence of an agrarian crisis of severe proportions, which is not confined to Vidarbha but extends to large parts of the country. The visit has highlighted the grave problem of peasant suicides and rural indebtedness plaguing the nation as a whole.

The prime minister, at the end of his visit, announced a Rs 3750 crore package for immediate relief to the suffering peasantry. Overdue interest on loans owed by farmers in the six districts of Vidarbha, amounting to Rs 712 crore, has been waived. A one year moratorium on the payment of outstanding debts and their rescheduling has been announced. An assurance has been given to ensure additional credit flow of Rs 1275 crore to the peasantry in these districts for this sowing season. Recognising that the lack of irrigation has been a major problem in Vidarbha since long, an amount of Rs 2177 crore has been announced for the completion of 524 major, medium and minor irrigation projects in these districts over the next three years. Some other minor concessions have also been announced. While these are welcome as immediate steps, the urgent need is to ensure that they are speedily implemented.

However, the AIKS is of the opinion that this package has in it a considerable measure of ad hocism, it has certain major inadequacies and is basically too little help given too late.

Firstly, considering the depth of the crisis of indebtedness in Vidarbha that has led to over 600 peasant suicides in the last one year itself, waiving of the principal loan amount at least of the families afflicted by peasant suicides and of other really needy sections should have been announced. That would have given real succour to the poorer sections of the peasantry and would have prevented more distress suicides.

Secondly, it is well known that one of the main reasons for the growing incidence of suicides in the cotton belt has been the crash of cotton prices paid to farmers. In Maharashtra, the state government added fuel to the fire last year by slashing the ‘advance bonus’ of Rs 500 per quintal paid to farmers under the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme. The prime minister has not given any assurance at all with regard to either raising the minimum support price or restoring the slashed bonus.

Thirdly, the crashing prices of cotton and several other crops is a direct result of the lifting of quantitative restrictions on import of agricultural goods and the refusal to increase import duty. In the case of cotton, the import duty is a ridiculous 10 per cent. And yet, no announcement was made by the prime minister as regards the raising of import duty. On the contrary, union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who accompanied the prime minister on his Vidarbha tour, is said to have gone on record during the tour itself that there was no need to increase import duty on cotton.

Finally, the AIKS is strongly of the opinion that the country as a whole is passing through a deep and unprecedented agrarian crisis, which is a direct result of the neo-liberal policies being pursued by successive central governments over the last one and a half decade. Such a serious situation cannot be remedied by piecemeal and ad hoc packages. What is urgently required is a comprehensive overhauling of the present agricultural policy itself, in favour of the overwhelming mass of the peasantry and agricultural workers, and against the growing invasion of the WTO and imperialist multinationals in the agrarian sector. As part of this, the AIKS demands that the UPA government must speedily implement the major recommendations of the National Commission of Farmers headed by its chairman Dr M S Swaminathan, and also the assurances given in its own National Common Minimum Programme.