BHUBANESWAR: A day after Centre raised the minimum support price (MSP) on paddy by `200 per quintal, senior BJD leader and Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy on Thursday criticised the paltry hike.Alleging that the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister have betrayed the farmers, Maharathy told mediapersons here on Thursday that the Centre has to explain on what basis it has fixed the production cost of paddy.
Though there has been a substantial hike in the MSP of 13 other kharif crops, the same has not been taken into consideration for paddy, he said. Stating that the Centre has given substantial hike in the MSP of 13 other kharif crops keeping in view the ensuing elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Maharathy said it is unfortunate that the Union Agriculture Minister, who hails from a farmer’s family, has failed to properly determine the production cost of paddy.
The Minister said the State Government will soon write to the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister in this regard. The Congress has also come down heavily on the Centre for the paltry hike in MSP of paddy. “The way the Union Ministers have tried to take credit for fulfilling election promises is painful,” Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and Congress veteran Narasingh Mishra said.
Mishra said as the production cost of paddy per quintal comes to around `1,484, the MSP should be fixed at `2,226. However, the Centre accepted the production cost at `1,166 per quintal fixed by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) which is not based on ground realities, he said and criticised the Union Ministers trying to take credit of the issue.
Mishra alleged that MSP on bajra has been increased by `1,000 per quintal because of the ensuing elections in Rajasthan. He also referred to the unanimous resolution passed in the Assembly in which the MSP was fixed at `2,930 per quintal. All the BJP MLAs had signed the resolution, he said and asked, “Who is right. The MLAs or the state leaders.” The UPA government had hiked MSP by `170 per quintal in 2012-13 which will be much more than `200 in current prices, he said.
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan had criticised the Congress and BJD for shedding crocodile tears over the issue. “The Congress-led UPA government during its tenure from 2004 to 2014 had fixed the MSP of paddy at `1,166 per quintal. Can the Congress say when it had raised the MSP to this extent in any year during its tenure?” he said.