The Centre took a number of key decisions on Wednesday, including raising the minimum support price for a range of pulses and approving a ‘Housing for all by 2022’ scheme.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday hiked the minimum support price (MSP) for a range of pulses between ₹50 a quintal and ₹75 a quintal with an additional bonus of ₹200 a quintal. Along with this, the government also increased the procurement price of paddy, the main Kharif crop, by ₹50 a quintal.

Promise unfulfilled The hike was on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, but falls short of the BJP’s promise of providing farmers with an MSP that covers the cost of production plus 50 per cent profit.

Procurement prices for arhar/tur, moong and urad dals have been raised by 6.3 per cent, 5.43 per cent and 6.3 per cent to ₹4,625, ₹4,850 and ₹4,625 a quintal, respectively.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved the launch of a ‘Housing for All by 2022’ scheme for urban areas under which central assistance in the range of ₹1 lakh to ₹2.3 lakh per beneficiary will be provided based on the category of the scheme.

For loans, the income ceiling defining economically weaker sections has been revised to ₹3 lakh per annum from ₹1 lakh earlier and the ceiling for the low income group has been hiked to ₹6 lakh per annum from the earlier ₹3 lakh. The changes will bring more people under the beneficiary bracket. The Cabinet also gave its approval for ramping up India’s solar power capacity target under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar mission five-fold to 100 GW by 2022, while the CCEA approved setting up of over 2,000 MW of grid connected solar power projects on a build, own and operate basis by developers with viability gap funding.

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