The Hindu : National : Wheat import will hit farmers, says BJP

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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

National

National

Wheat import will hit farmers, says BJP

Special Correspondent

It wants interest rates on farm loans to be not more than 7 p.c.

NEW DELHI : The Bharatiya Janata Party has criticised the Centre for the import of wheat, after a gap of eight years, and the raising of interest rates on housing loans.

It was the "anti-people" policies of the Government that had led to this, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here on Monday.

It will not be long before wheat farmers are caught up in a debt and begin committing suicide as had happened with the cotton-growing farmers, Mr. Javadekar noted.

His contention was that while the Government had not increased the minimum support price for farmers growing rice and wheat — they accounted for 80 per cent of all farmers — it had allowed private parties to buy and hoard these food grains and release them in a way to increase the market price. The result was that while farmers continued to get little for their produce the consumers were paying more.

The UPA's agriculture policy had led to the depletion of food stocks, lowering of quotas issued through the public distribution system, less money for farmers and higher price for consumers, he said. While the Government would be paying Rs. 10 per kg for imported Australian wheat, Indian farmers were getting Rs. 7 for their produce.

The party demanded that interest rates on housing that had gone up by 50 per cent since the UPA came to power should be cut back to no more than seven per cent. He said the party favoured the interest rates on housing loans and farm loans of not more than over seven per cent. sA three-day national executive committee meeting of the BJP is now scheduled to be held in Ludhiana from May 25.

Mr. Javadekar said the Assembly elections were due in Punjab next year and the meeting was expected to boost the party's profile.

During the first part of the Budget session in February, the party announced it would hold a national executive committee meeting in Guwahati sometime in March during the recess in the session. However, the start of the process for the Assembly elections earlier than expected forced it to cancel that meeting.

The Ludhiana meeting will be the first full-fledged national executive committee meeting of the party since Rajnath Singh took over as party president early this year.

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