Pleading the case of Punjab farmers with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the state Congress has sought his intervention in announcing an additional Rs 200 per quintal over the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat.
A delegation of Punjab Congress MPs led by state Congress president Pratap Singh Bajwa today met Singh here and handed over a memorandum in this regard.
Bajwa, who was accompanied by Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, also an MP from Ludhiana, and some other Lok Sabha members, apprised the Prime Minister of the plight of farmers in the state, saying they were not getting remunerative prices of their produce in the wake of lower MSP.
Bajwa said while the Centre has announced a minimum support price of Rs 1350 per quintal of wheat, it is inadequate as it does not even cover the cost of production of about Rs 1700 per quintal.
The State Congress Chief informed the Prime Minister that the working group on agriculture production headed by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has already recommended that the MSP be 50 per cent more than the cost of cultivation.
He said the current meagre increase of only Rs 65 per quintal in MSP of wheat does even compensate the farmers for the increase in cost inputs and called upon him to announce a bonus of not less than Rs 200 per quintal over and above the MSP.
Punjab is the food bowl of the country and looking forward to a total production of 150 lakh tonnes of wheat despite adverse conditions and natural calamities like inclement weather and errant power supply, the memorandum said.
Other MPs in the delegation included Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Santosh Chaudhary, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sukhdev Singh Libra and Vijay Inder Singla.
