Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal described the Centre’s decision on a “marginal and laughable increase” in the MSP of wheat by Rs 50 per quintal for the Rabbi Marketing season 2013-14 as “the cruelest joke of decade”.
“With this decision, the Congress-led UPA Government has added insult to the injury and rubbed salt in the wounds of country’s already beleaguered pleasantry,” said Badal while terming this negligible hike as “woefully inadequate and unjustified”. He demanded its re-fixation at Rs 1,855 per quintal in accordance with the prevalent cost of the inputs in market.
lambasting the Centre, Badal took strong exception to the decision of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs which announced an increase of Rs 50 in the MSP of wheat thereby fixing it up to Rs 1,400 per quintal over last year's MSP of Rs 1350. He said that the MSP of Rs 1,400 per quintal on wheat does not even cover the cost of production on one hand, and was much below the expectations of the farmers on the other.