Prices of Crops Raised by Modi Government: Dr Jitendra Singh
By RMN News Service
In a counter to the opposition allegation that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi wants to put an end to the provision of Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops, the government has given its clarification.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today cited figures to state that contrary to what is being said, the matter of fact is that over the past six years, the MSP on crops was progressively raised by the Modi government.
In an interaction with farmers, Sarpanches, Panches and local activists of Block Nagri in district Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the opposition has no facts or figures to prove their criticism and are indulging in purely political rhetoric to denigrate path breaking decision taken by PM Modi.
“It is therefore incumbent on us to fight out this motivated campaign at public level and reach out to the common farmers and people in general with facts and figures which can be verified by anybody,” the minister said.
[ Punjabi Artists Harbhajan Mann, Sidhu Moosewala, Deep Sidhu Lead Farmers’ Protests ]
Currently, hundreds of thousands of farmers, activists, and political groups in India are defying the safe-distancing coronavirus guidelines to protest on roads against the Modi government and the new farm laws.
Of late, the Modi government has passed 3 connected Bills to make them laws. These are: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.
While farmers are rejecting these laws, they are demanding the MSP for their crops. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the per quintal MSP rate for Paddy was Rs. 1410 in 2015-16 which was raised to Rs. 1470 in 2016-17 and it was further raised to Rs. 1550 in 2017-18, Rs. 1750 in 2018-19, Rs. 1815 in 2019-20, and Rs. 1868 in 2020-21.
Similarly, he said, per quintal MSP on wheat was Rs. 1525 in 2015-16, Rs. 1625 in 2015-16, Rs. 1735 in 2017-18, Rs. 1840 in 2018-19 and Rs.1925 in 2019-20. On peanut the per quintal MSP was Rs. 4030/- in 2015-16, Rs. 4220 in 2016-17, Rs. 4450 in 2017-18, Rs. 4890 in 2018-19, Rs. 5090 in 2019-20, and Rs. 5275 in current year of 2020-21.
He added that a similar MSP increase can also be seen in a number of other items like Soyabean, Gram, etc.
