HC seeks govt affidavit on farmer union’s plea

PLEA SOUGHT TO QUASH GOVT INSTRUCTIONS, WHEREBY FARMERS ASKED TO PROVIDE ACCOUNT NUMBER FOR PAYMENT OF MSP

CHANDIGARH:The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought an affidavit from director, department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, Punjab on the plea of the farmers’ body–Punjab Kisan Union.

The affidavit has been sought by justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa by October 29, on the plea asking the court to quash government instructions, whereby farmers have been asked to provide their account number for payment of minimum support price (MSP) of their crops. MSP is not a subsidy by the government, akin to central sector schemes, rather, it is the cost price of the crop of a farmer, the court was told, adding that instructions put out by the government need to be quashed.

The court was told that in 2017, to ensure complete tracking of subsidies meant for Centre schemes on Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and Expenditure, Advance and Transfer (EAT) module for all Program Implementing Agencies was started. The petitioner’s counsel, Charanjit Sharma, told the court that under the garb of PFMS, the food corporation of India has started forcing procurement agencies and arhtias to link bank account numbers of the farmers. State agencies are forcing the programme implementing agencies to implement this for MSP, which is actually meant only for central sector subsidies or grants, the court was told. HTC