by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, Markets, News, Politics
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Chandigarh : Committing to protecting farmer’s interests, Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Sunday warned ‘arthiyas’ (commission agents) of action if farmers were paid less or payment was delayed for the paddy procured from them.
“Action will be taken against the ‘arthiyas’ giving lesser value against MSP (minimum support price) to farmers,” Ashu said in a statement here.
He said that in accordance with the Punjab Agricultural Produce Market Rules Act, 1962, it was the duty of the state government to make payment within 48 hours and the amount was forwarded to the farmers through cheques.
Some of the ‘arthiyas’ in the state were not transferring the payment of paddy to the farmers through cheques. Rather they were indulging in cash payments, which was in violation of the rules, the Minister said.
“Besides this, it has also been noticed that even the MSP is not given to the farmers.
“Any kind of forging and cheating with farmers will not be tolerated and they should be given the full price of their produce,” Ashu said.
He also directed the officials of procurement agencies to make sure that payments, in the stipulated time frame, were made and ensure that all the norms regarding procurement process were followed.
Government agencies and private mill owners procured nearly 75 lakh tonne of paddy in Punjab this kharif season. The procurement started on October 1, though the bulk stocks started coming after October 10.
The state government has already made payments of over Rs 9,075 crore to ‘arthiyas’ and farmers in their accounts.
Over 99 per cent of the procurement had been done by government agencies.
The Central government had sanctioned a Cash Credit Limit (CCL) amount of Rs 29,695.40 crore for procurement of paddy in the kharif marketing season 2018-19, against a demand of Rs 40,300 crore raised by Punjab.
Punjab has made arrangements for a bumper procurement of 200 lakh tonne of paddy this season.
In 2017-18, a total of 179.34 lakh tonne of paddy was procured in the state.
Agrarian Punjab contributes 50 per cent of food grains (wheat and paddy) to the national kitty despite having just 1.54 per cent of the country’s geographical area.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on Saturday said farmers would hold demonstrations across the country against the Narendra Modi-government for failing to fix fair Minimum Support Price (MSP) for kharif crops.
Addressing media here, leaders of the AIKSCC, an umbrella body of over 180 farm organisations, the government had not just failed to fulfill its electoral promise of fixing MSP, according to the M.S. Swaminathan Commission recommendations, but “fooled” farmers by calling the hike in the new MSP “historic”.
The planned demonstrations would start with a protest march with black flags from Mandi House to Parliament Street on July 20. Later, on the anniversary of the ‘Quit India Movement’, a ‘Kisan Mukti Diwas’ will be observed on August 9, in which farmers will participate in a Jail Bharo Andolan’.
On November 30, farmers across the country will lay siege the national capital to force the passage of two Bills regarding loan waiver and better farm remuneration, as per the AIKSCC.
Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav, who is a part of the AIKSCC, said the government had fixed the MSP for kharif crops using ‘A2+FL’ input of cost against the comprehensive ‘C2’, which is recommended by Swaminathan Commission and being demanded by farmers.
“The (BJP) government’s claims of fulfilling its promise of profit of 1.5 times the input cost and historic hike in MSP are wrong. It is not as per ‘C2’. As per ‘C2’, the MSP of paddy should be Rs 2,340 per quintal while the government has fixed it at Rs 1,750 per quintal using ‘A2+ FL’. It means farmers will incur loss of Rs590 for every quintal,” he said.
He also said that the Modi government was lying when it said the hike in the new MSP was “historic”. “It is not new to increase crop prices in election year. UPA government had increased prices for all crop by almost 50 per cent (in 2008-09). But the BJP government’s hike is below 50 per cent except one crop,” he said.
Yadav said the government decided to increase the MSP following nation-wide protest carried out by the AIKSCC including the mega rally in Delhi last November.
AIKSCC will also carry out inspections at all wholesale markets from October 8 to 10 “to expose” government’s claim on MSP and to see if procurement is done properly.
According to the AIKSCC, only 28-30 per cent of wheat and 30 to 35 per cent of paddy is procured while for coarse grains, the procurement is less than 1 per cent.
AIKSCC convener V.M. Singh said letters will be written to MPs for their support to the Private Member Bills, expected to be tabled by MP Raju Shetty of Swabhiman Shetkari Sanghtana.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodity Market, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Investing, News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : The Odisha government on Tuesday targeted the Centre over the delay in announcement of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy and other crops for the Kharif season 2018.
Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah of shedding crocodile tears for the farmers.
“The Centre generally fixes the MSP by mid-June. But, it is unfortunate that government is yet to announce the MSP of major crops till date. The farmers in Odisha are worried over the delay in MSP announcement,” said the Minister.
He said the state government, in a letter, has already recommended the Centre to fix the MSP at Rs 2,930 per quintal.
Odisha had suggested the Centre to fix the MSP of Common Grade paddy at Rs 2,930 per quintal and Grade ‘A’ paddy at Rs 2,970 per quintal. However, the Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended Rs 1,745 and Rs 1,770 MSP for Common Grade and Grade A paddy respectively, he added.
Maharathy said Amit Shah, who recently visited Odisha, did not speak on MSP revision though over 60 per cent people in Odisha depend on agriculture.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Niranjan Patnaik said even though July has already begun, the Centre has not been able to announce the MSP for farmers.
He said the Centre should immediately announce one and half times of the production cost as promised by the Prime minister for the benefit of the farmers.
BJP MLA Pradip Purohit said the centre is in the process of declaring the MSP price of major crops.
“Centre has started evaluating the MSP issue, some states have sent their reports but few others are delaying it. The committee will commence its meeting soon and the MSP will be hiked as per the promise of the Prime Minister,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Finance, Markets, News, Politics
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that each and every expense incurred by a farmer will be considered, including his labour, while fixing the minimum support price (MSP) at 1.5 times the input cost.
While addressing his monthly radio programme “Mann Ki Baat”, the Prime Minister said a major decision was taken in this year’s budget to ensure adequate returns to farmers when the government decided to give at least one-and-a-half times the input costs as MSP for the scheduled crops.
Modi said while calculating the MSP, the input cost to be cosidered will include the labour cost, expenditure on machines and animals-also including machine and animals on hire-cost of seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, land revenue, interest on working capital, rent of leased land and even the labour cost of the farmer and his family.
“Further to ensure adequate income to farmers, agriculture marketing reforms are being initiated in a big way. Efforts are being made to link village markets to wholesale market and global market,” he said.
The Prime Minister added that in order to ensure that farmers do not have to go far to sell their produce, 22,000 village haats are being upgraded to agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) and being integrated with e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) platform.
“Such a system is being evolved that farms can be connected to any market in the country,” Modi added.
—IANS
