Former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
| Photo Credit: AKHILESH KUMAR

Leader of Opposition in Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday blamed the ill-conceived policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government responsible for making agriculture a loss-making deal for farmers.

He said that the Congress party is preparing a draft to make agriculture a profitable business and improve the condition of farmers in an attempt to take them out of financial distress.

Mr. Hooda, who is the head of the group constituted for the subject of ‘Farmers and Agriculture’ for the 85th plenary session of the All-India Congress Committee to be held in Raipur from February 24 to 26, took a meeting of this group.

According to the party statement, during the meeting, suggestions were sought from all the members on the draft to be presented in the session and these were discussed in detail. This included proposals such as guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers, determining MSP under the C2 formula, liberating farmers from debt, and giving banking concessions to agriculture-like industries. A detailed discussion was held with all the farmer leaders and agriculture experts to prepare the draft, it added.

Later talking to presspersons, Mr. Hooda said that the Congress is fully prepared to raise public-centric issues in the upcoming Budget session of the Haryana State Assembly.

“Answer will be sought from the government on issues surrounding corruption, law and order, etc. A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party would be held on February 19, before the session to finalise the strategy,” he said.

Mr. Hooda added that finding burnt bodies of two people in Loharu of Bhiwani was a very serious issue. “This incident has once again made it clear that there is no such thing as law and order in the State. The state government should take cognizance of the matter and conduct a fair investigation, and take prompt action in the matter,” he said.