Summary:
Farmers’ organisations in Punjab have described the Prime Minister’s newly announced scheme PM-AASHA (Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan) as a scheme to favour private players by bringing in private players into procurement. He added that 90 per cent farmers faced huge losses under ‘bhavantar’ scheme in MP despite completing all the formalities. Farmers organisations will now organise a meeting on September 26 to decide the protest programme. They said that with this the government is preparing ground for withdrawal of state from procurement responsibility. All India Kisan Sangharsh Committee (AIKSC) also said that this scheme does not provide any mechanism to strengthen marketing infrastructure needed in most parts of the country for farmers to take benefit of MSP..