The Congress on Wednesday targeted the Modi government over increase in fertiliser prices and termed it as yet another attack on farmers after the “so called” agriculture reforms in the form of three farm laws.
“What did the Modi government increase? GST, petrol, diesel and fertiliser prices, income of Modi’s friends and injustice to farmers in pandemic times. And what was lowered – farm subsidy, farmers’ income and dignity of the central government,” former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said.
The opposition party mounted a fresh attack on the Modi government, accusing it of planning to “destroy farming and hand over the sector to corporate friends.”
“The Modi government, which is anti-farmer, has now increased prices of DAP and other fertilisers that will put an additional burden of Rs 20,000 crore on farmers across the country,” AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
“We demand that the government immediately roll back the hike in prices of fertilisers,” he said.
He claimed that the Modi government is working towards making farming difficult and unremunerative, and force farmers to surrender their land to industrialists.
Surjewala said the price of a 50-kg pack of DAP fertiliser has been raised from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,900, and claimed that such a hike has never happened in over 70 years.
Surjewala also claimed that the government has also imposed GST on farm equipment and other inputs used in the agriculture sector.
(Published 19 May 2021, 12:53 IST)
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