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A big joke: Harish
Terming the Central government’s Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for red-chillies as ‘joke of the millennium’, Agriculture and Marketing Minister T Harish Rao accused the Centre of completely failing to understand the real problem.
Wants 7,000 for quintal, procurement of total chilli yield
Hyderabad: Terming the Central government’s Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for red-chillies as ‘joke of the millennium’, Agriculture and Marketing Minister T Harish Rao accused the Centre of completely failing to understand the real problem.
Speaking to mediapersons at the TRSLP office here on Thursday, the minister expressed dissatisfaction over the Central order, which states that out of the average seven-lakh quintals of chilli crop yield in the state, about 50 per cent (3.37 lakh quintals) will be procured under the MIS at Rs 5,000 per quintal with an additional Rs 1,250 towards overhead expenses.
Harish Rao said the Centre’s decision instead of providing relief to the farmers created more confusion, since the decision was announced without conducting proper study on the matter.
He said the Centre’s MIS has targeted less than 10 % of the total produce lying with the farmers and emphasising on buying best quality produce was ironical.
“While announcing Rs 5,000 as support price, the Centre insisted on procuring the best quality produce of mere 3.37 lakh quintals. It is ridiculous. What about the remaining 35 lakh quintals of red-chillies?” he questioned.
He asked the Centre to rope in central agencies FCI and NAFED to come to the rescue of farmers by procuring red-chillies at Rs 7,000 per quintal. He said the state government would be writing a letter to the Centre once again to resolve the issue and would explain the real problem once again in detail.
While referring to the recent demonstrations by BJP leaders who demanded the government to buy the red-chillies for Rs 10,000 per quintal, Harish Rao said the Centre should accept their proposal.
He wondered how the Centre had come up with the Rs 5,000-proposal, when the farmers were already getting offers of Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,500 per quintal in the markets.
He refuted the claims of Union Minister Dattatreya that the state government had failed to seek assistance from the Centre. He pointed out that party MP B Vinod Kumar had represented to the Centre on the issue on March 30. Later, he himself had forwarded a letter to the Centre on April 1.
