Centre would form committee on MSP as soon as it receives names from SKM: Tomar

The Centre would form a committee on MSP as soon as it receives names from SKM: Tomar

As soon as the government receives the names of representatives from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the central govt would form a committee on minimum support price (MSP) as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2021, said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

The Minister of Agriculture emphasizes that The promise was made while the PM announced the repeal of three farm laws that farmers had been protesting for over a year.

Also Read | Govt play yet another ‘trick’ of forming MSP committee after elections: Surjewala

During Question Hour, Mr Tomar responded to a question raised by M. Shanmugam of the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) by saying that the government was committed to forming the committee. The Prime Minister made the promise while announcing the repeal of three farm laws that had been the subject of farmers’ protests for more than a year.

Mr. Tomar stated that the Prime Minister had stated that a committee on organic farming, crop diversification, and making MSPs more transparent would be formed. The govt was working on the matter.

‘We’ve requested names from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha. With them, discussions are ongoing. The committee will be formed as soon as the names are received,’ Mr Tomar said, referring to the umbrella group of farmers’ unions that had staged a protest against the farm laws.

The problem with parboiled rice

Earlier in the Question Period, Consumer, Food, and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal rebuked state governments for ‘misleading’ farmers about parboiled rice purchasing. In response to a question from K. Keshava Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Mr. Goyal restated the Centre’s position that states could procure parboiled rice for internal distribution, but the Centre would not.

The government had informed the states that it would be unable to obtain parboiled rice because it had four or five years’ worth of stock on hand and no further demand. Also Read | Formation of Committee on MSP will take place after five states elections: Tomar.

He pointed out that the Telangana government had ‘given it in writing’ to the Centre that they would give raw rice rather than parboiled rice. There was an attempt to mislead farmers by ‘some MPs and some State governments.’ Mr Rao stated that the rules and laws in question state that the government will procure paddy, not rice, in various forms.