BANGALORE: Protesting against the state government’s failure to stabilise prices of tur by market intervention in Gulbarga, Congress legislators staged a walkout in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.
Congress member Allam Prabhu Patil, who raised the issue through a call attention motion under rule 330, charged the state government of reneging on its promise on the issue.
“The government’s promise has remained only on paper... farmers of Gulbarga, Bidar, Bagalkot and Yadgir districts have been left in the lurch,” the Congress member said.
He added that the Centre had fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for tur at `3,200 per quintal and even announced an additional incentive of `500 per quintal followed by the state government’s additional assistance of `300 per quintal.
“No attempts were made by the government to procure tur from the market. Let the government open procurement centres and announce to buy the crop at `4,000 per quintal from tomorrow itself,” Patil detailed.
The Congress member also announced that this year about 22 lakh quintals of tur were grown in four districts; he said that if the state government decides to procure tur, its price would go up.
Leader of Opposition in the Council Motamma and S R Patil also urged the government to fulfil its promises made to the farmers.
Meanwhile, Minister for Agriculture Umesh Katti said that the state government has made all arrangements to go for market intervention if the price of tur falls below `3,200 per quintal.
He clarified that the crop was currently being sold at `3,700 per quintal.