The Hindu Business Line : Chidambaram justifies hike in foodgrains support price

The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Thursday justified in the Lok Sabha the recent upward revision in the minimum support price for foodgrains announced by the UPA Government, stating that farmers in the country deserve this hike.

Winding up the discussion on the second batch of supplementary demands for grants, Mr Chidambaram conceded that agricultural growth rate remained sluggish and hoped that it would register 4 per cent in the current fiscal.

He said consumers of grains would have to put up with pressure on prices because after providing a fair and remunerative price to farmers, transport cost and wholesale and retail margins need to be factored at the consumer-end. He said the hike in MSP “justified and will be reflected in the high prices” at retail level.

He said that the UPA Government has taken the MSP for wheat from Rs 630 per quintal to Rs 1,000 per quintal now, whereas the NDA Government was able to raise it from Rs 580 to Rs 630 in its tenure.

He said the UPA Government has undertaken a slew of farm-centric support measures, including irrigation, research and development and extension services, and the enhanced provision for agriculture in the 11th Plan would help improve the agrarian scenario.

Mr Chidambaram said the 11th Plan proposes to allocate Rs 2,31,935 crore to the irrigation sector, and asked the States to ensure that the irrigation programmes are completed on time. He added that the irrigation programmes in the country must be “beneficiary-driven and not contractor-driven” and once this was done, “the entire agricultural landscape will change”.

Skill training

Referring to skill development programme, the Minister said a sum of Rs 550 crore would be set apart to upgrade Indian Technical Institutes (ITIs), which would provide specialised skills to job seekers.

Later, the House approved the relevant appropriation for the second batch of supplementary demands for grants for the current fiscal amounting to Rs 33,290.71 crore and also the demand for excess grants for the year 2005-06 by voice vote.

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