Congress criticises Haryana govt.’s ‘anti-farmer’ decision

Increase in market fee of all varieties of paddy would ‘push farm business to big private players’, says party

Congress party leaders on Friday said that the Haryana government had decided to increase the market fee and rural development fee on paddy, which had yet again revealed the “anti-farmer” attitude of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) coalition. The Congress party’s national general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the decision. He said the government’s move to increase the market fee and the Haryana Rural Development Fund fee on all varieties of paddy is a short-sighted decision in a pandemic. “After this decision, the farmers of Haryana will be compelled either to sell off their crops in the neighbouring States’ agricultural mandis or they will have to sell paddy to traders at a lower price,” he said.