Growers not getting MSP: AICC secy

Dharamsala, October 8

Sudhir Sharma, former minister and AICC secretary, has alleged that farmers of the state were not getting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for maize crop, as declared by the union government.

In a press release issued here today, Sharma said the Centre had declared the MSP for maize crop at Rs 1,850 per quintal. However, the farmers of lower Himachal, who grow maize as Kharif crop, were getting just Rs 800 per quintal. Since there was no government purchase of maize in any mandi, the farmers were being forced sell their produce to traders at a much lower price, the former minister said.

He alleged that traders from the adjoining states were coming and collecting maize crop from the farmers of the state. The cost of growing maize in a state like Himachal Pradesh came to about Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,500 per quintal, which meant the farmers were selling the crop at a loss.

The way the maize crop was being sold here showed that if the farmers were left at the mercy of market forces, the big traders and hoarders would purchase crops at low prices and sell them at higher rates to the consumers, he alleged.

In case the government wanted to withdraw from the purchase of crops it should make buying of crops below the declared MSP a punishable offence. The MSP had no meaning without any legal protection to ensure it, he maintained.

The Congress would go to the ground level and make people aware regarding the designs of the present BJP government to deprive the farmers of their rights, Sharma added.