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Advani wants MSP for paddy raised

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani on Saturday urged the government to raise the minimum support price of paddy to Rs. 1,000 a quintal for the current kharif marketing season. The government had recently announced a bonus of Rs. 50 for a quintal for paddy taking the MSP of common variety to Rs. 695 a quintal and for Grade A variety of paddy to Rs. 725 a quintal.

In a letter written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Bhartiya Janata Party leader said there was growing unrest among paddy growers, particularly in the southern States, who feel that there is no relation of the MSP of paddy to the cost of cultivation. “An added cause for unrest is the widespread feeling that the United Progressive Alliance government was discriminating between paddy growers vis-À-vis wheat cultivators.”

Mr. Advani said several farmers organisations had approached him to say that the MSP for paddy was much below the high cost of cultivation due to the steep hike in the recent years in the cost of inputs including power, irrigation, transportation, fertilizers, pesticides and labour.

While lauding the recent hike in the MSP of wheat, Mr. Advani urged the Prime Minister to address the concerns of paddy growers.

He also raised the issue of suicide by sugarcane growers highlighted by four farmer ‘padyatris’ who walked to New Delhi from Andhra Pradesh.

The four Telangana farmers went on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar for six days and called it off at his behest. (As reported in The Hindu, they later also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi who gave them an assurance that their problems would be looked into.)

Mr. Advani said the farmers were demanding immediate relief for sugarcane growers in Telangana region, generous rehabilitation for families of farmers who had committed suicide, time-bound completion of irrigation projects in the region, easy credit facilities, setting up of a Price Stabilisation Fund for Farm produce and reforms in the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP).

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