Former Punjab chief minister and SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal today hailed the Centre's decision to increase the MSPs for Kharif crops and congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling his commitment to farmers about implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
The Centre today hiked the minimum support price for paddy by a record Rs 200 per quintal for 2018-19. It will cost the exchequer over Rs 15,000 crore.
The decision, taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by the prime minister, comes less than a year before the next general elections.
The previous highest hike in paddy MSP was Rs 170 a quintal in the 2012-13 crop year. In the last four years, the NDA government has raised the paddy MSP between Rs 50-80 per quintal.
"The Centre's bold initiative to effect this unprecedented hike in MSP of various crops, speaks of the commitment of the NDA government to come to the aid of the farming community in its hour of dire need," Badal said in a statement here.
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"This hike amounts to an acceptance in-principle of the recommendations inherent in the Swaminthan Commission formula to give farmers a 50 per cent profit over inputs costs. It would also go a long way in steering them out of the crisis into which they had fallen while helping the country fight the problem of food shortage in the sixties and the early seventies," he said.
The Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch said, "The prime minister, through this decision, has shown that the country has not forgotten the brave and selfless contribution of the farmers to the nation."
Badal also said that BJP President Amit Shah had last month assured him that farmers' interests will be protected.
In a statement, Badal claimed that more than 500 farmers have committed suicides in Punjab this year, and said that he hoped that Punjab Chief Minister Amaridner Singh would find time to thank the prime minister.
BJP's national general secretary Tarun Chugh welcomed the Centre's decision, saying that it would come as a big relief to the farmers and boost the farming sector.
The BJP leader, in a statement, said by announcing 70 to 99 per cent hike in the MSP of moong, arhar, jawar, bajra, peanut, cotton, sunflower and other crops, Centre has provided a much-needed relief to the farmers who were till now facing huge financial crunch.
Chugh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had fulfilled his promises made to farmers, the poor, the backward class, Dalits and labourers, and would continue to take bold steps in the interest of the downtrodden.
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