Punjab CM slams Warring for 'misleading' people over paddy MSP

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Thursday slammed state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring for allegedly misleading people with his statement that the state advocate general appealed to the Supreme Court to end MSP on paddy.

Punjab AG Gurminder Singh also called Warring’s statement ”a lie” and said he had suggested to the apex court that the Centre should give minimum support price on other crops as well so that farmers have a choice of diversifying.

Amid a spike in pollution levels in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court on Tuesday had directed Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to ensure crop residue burning was stopped ”forthwith”, saying it cannot let ”people die” due to pollution.

In a statement on Thursday, CM Mann dubbed Warring as a ”chornic liar” and hit out at him for misleading the people by giving ”erroneous, malafide and mendacious statements”.

Mann said Warring is trying to hoodwink the facts just for scoring brownie points before the media.

The state government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to secure the interests of the state, he said.

Citing the affidavit, Mann said the state government has submitted that incentives by the central government for a period of 40 years had led to the adoption of the cultivation of paddy in the state which is providing remunerative pricing under minimum support price.

The government further submitted that in order to divert and diversify cropping pattern from paddy to other crops, assured MSP and other incentives will have to be provided to farmers to make it viable for them to adopt other crops.

A sustainable campaign will be required for changing the behavioral pattern of the farmers. The implementation of these measures will go a long way in management of crop residue, the state government submitted, Mann said.

Warring has said that the AG has appealed to the SC to end MSP on paddy. Punjab is being trapped under a conspiracy, the Punjab Congress chief said in his post on X.

Mann said Warring is quoting some affidavit from his own ”whims and fancies” which reflects the ”non-serious attitude” of the Congress MLA.

Warring, in another post in a reaction to the CM’s statement, said he spoke about what the AG said before the SC, not the affidavit of the state government.

Meanwhile, Punjab AG Singh said, ”We have said that along with paddy, the Centre should give MSP on other crops also so that farmers have a choice of diversifying.” Singh said he also suggested to the SC that crop residue management machinery may be given to farmers free of cost with the support of Punjab (25 per cent) and Delhi (25 per cent) governments and the Centre (50 per cent).