Vibha sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 21
A day after Parliament passed the three agricultural laws, the Narendra Modi government announced on Monday the support price for six Rabi crops, including wheat.
Making the announcement in the Lok Sabha after a CCEA meeting led by the Prime Minister, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the support price of wheat has been increased by Rs 50 to bring it to Rs 1,975 on quintal for the next season of Rabi.
Tomar, making the announcement on the floor of the House, said “while Congress tells the whole country that the MSP and APMC will leave, the decision is proof of the fact that they will both continue.” In announcing the MSP for six crops, including Chana, Tomar said: “I want to reiterate that the MSP and APMC will remain.”
Amid shouts of slogan from Punjab congressional MPs, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress said the government should go and tell this to Punjab farmers on the roads. Khadoor Sahib’s MP Jasbir Singh Dimpa later told The Tribune that they want guarantees from the government that they will continue to buy the beans in mandis.
As soon as Tomar stopped speaking, the Punjab MPs from the Congress party, including Jasbir Singh Gill, Manish Tewari, Ravneet Sing Bittu and Gurjeet Singh Aujla, raised slogans in the Chamber.
Gill claimed that opposition MPs’ microphones were turned off after he asked Tomar to assure farmers of government purchase of crops under the MSP.
He claimed that MSP “announced that it was too little, too late” and that the increase was “little”.
