“The MSP is there, it was there and it will continue to be there,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Chennai:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today launched a veiled attack on Congress regarding the new agricultural laws, saying that those who did not even provide a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for products other than rice and wheat now they were generating “unreasonable” apprehensions.
Strongly upholding the Center’s new farm laws, he said these laws were under the purview of union government and covered interstate agricultural trade.
On the fears that the government could eliminate the MSP, he said: “It seems absolutely unreasonable to continue speculating about it and to say that this is the farmer’s business.”
At a press conference in Chennai, the minister said: “MSP is there, was there and will continue to be there.”
Under “certain other governments,” the focus was solely on giving and increasing the MSP for rice and wheat and did not “worry” about other crops, he said.
Although 20-23 items were covered by the MSP regime, “those who gave” support prices only for rice and wheat and not for other crops are today crying badly, raising fears that the government may eliminate the system. of MSP and was surprising, he said, in an apparent reference to Congress and others protesting the Center’s agricultural measures.
Only after the BJP took over the reins in 2014 did Prime Minister Narendra Modi extend the MSP to other crops besides wheat and rice, he said.
Although about 23-24 lakh tonnes of pulses were needed, only around 16 lakh tonnes were produced and the rest was imported, he said adding that the MSP was also given to other crops to reverse that scenario by the NDA government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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