Chandigarh: Demanding a hike in the rate of sugarcane, the legislators of the Congress, the principal opposition party in the Haryana Assembly, staged a walkout on Wednesday, the last day of the Winter Session, in Chandigarh.
Raising the issue of the sugarcane rate, former Chief Minister and leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said farmers suffered huge losses due to rise in input prices while the rate of sugarcane had not been increased.
The input cost of farmers on fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, petrol-diesel and transport was continuously increasing, while the ruling BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) Government had not increased sugarcane rate, which had pushed the farmers in financial distress, Mr Hooda said.
He held that the farmers demanded the rate of sugarcane should be Rs450 per quintal, but the Government was not ready to bring the rate on a par with Punjab. The Congress staged a walkout from the House in protest when the Government refused to increase the rate, despite repeated demands.
Earlier, led by Mr Hooda, Congress legislators Raghubir Kadian, Jagbir Malik, Kiran Choudhry, BB Batra, Geeta Bhukkal, Shakuntala Khatak and Amit Sihag among others raised an uproar and demanded the withdrawal of the cases filed against the farmers, discussion on waterlogging and compensation to farmers and other issues. They held their many proposals related to discussion on farmers’ issues were rejected.
Mr Hooda held that the Government was running away from discussing the farmers' issues.
The Opposition was committed to raising various issues of the people, but the Government was running away from its responsibility, the former CM said.
