Former Agriculture minister Chandrashekhar Sahu (in pic) said that the decision over getting support price of Rs 2100 per quintal of paddy from the Centre was taken by the ruling BJP Government before the onset of the last Kharif season.
“The Centre was communicated by the Chhattisgarh Government regarding the decision to demand a support price of Rs 2,100 per quintal of paddy for the farmers well in advance,” he said while addressing a news conference here on Wednesday. He said that the Congress party in Chhattisgarh had told the farmers that it would offer the support price of Rs 2000 per quintal of paddy from its own internal resources if it formed the Government in Chhattisgarh after the Assembly polls.
The BJP leader also said that if the Centre did not approve the support price of Rs 2,100 per quintal for paddy as demanded by the ruling Government in Chhattisgarh, the BJP would go with its full mandate during the lok Sabha polls to the Centre and approve the proposal for the farmers after forming the government.
“As Agriculture minister during the previous tenure of the ruling party, I had written a letter to chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ashok Gulati while stating that the farmers were losing interest in cultivating paddy due to its lower support price, he said. Sahu stated that 70 per cent of the cropped area in Chhattisgarh is dependent on the monsoons in which 90 per cent of the area is covered under paddy cultivation.
He further informed it was also mentioned in the letter to the Commission that it appears imperative to revisit the issue of paddy support price for maintaining high production at the state and national levels. Moreover, going by the pre-dominantly agrarian economy of Chhattisagarh, it was demanded that the support price for common paddy be fixed at Rs 2,050 per quintal and Rs 2100 per quintal for ‘A’ grade paddy, he stated.
In another letter to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, as Agriculture Minister, Sahu had mentioned that in keeping with the interests of the farmers, the Chhattisgarh government had been distributing a total of Rs 1,900 crore as bonus to the State’s farmers which was provisioned in the State budget.