Uttar Pradesh on Thursday ruled out any increase in minimum support price (MSP) of wheat fixed by the Centre, prompting Opposition to stage a walkout in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
The matter was raised during question hour by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Dalveer Singh and others, who sought to know from the State Government whether it was considering increasing support price of Rs 1,350 a quintal for wheat fixed by the Centre.
When the State Agriculture Minister Anand Kumar Singh replied that there was no such move due to financial constraints, RLD members accused the Samajwadi Party Government of being “anti-farmer” and staged a walkout.
They were soon followed by Congress lawmakers after party leader, Pramod Tiwari, said that support price of Rs 1,350 for wheat was fixed by Centre but there was not upper limit. He said the State was free to increase it. He said keeping in mind the price rise, the MSP should be increased.
Later, BJP leader Hukum Singh sought an assurance from the Minister that the Government would increase the support price in future as two months were still left for harvesting, but the Minister said that he could not give any such assurance.
Unhappy with the Minister’s reply, the BJP members too staged a walkout.