Bhopal: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will hold one-to-one meetings with the 25 IAS officers, who were sent to various Mandis in the state to study the problems in the implementation of the Bhavantar scheme at the ground level. Post-discussions, necessary changes may be made in the scheme.
After reports that farmers were agitated over the provisions of the scheme, the chief minister had asked senior officers to visit Mandis and hold discussions with traders and farmers. They were asked to submit their reports to the agriculture department.
Sources say that most of the officers have not received positive feedback on the scheme. The farmers have presented long lists of complaints before them. The farmers are sore that they are not even getting last year’s prices for their produce and are also not being paid in cash by the traders.
The farmers also complained that they are not getting the benefit of crop insurance scheme and other assistance schemes launched by the state government. The traders have expressed their inability in paying cash up to Rs 50,000. They say that they will have to do a lot of paper work to satisfy the I-T department if they will make payments in cash.
Chouhan also instructed that the farmers who have sold their produce between October 16 and 31 should be paid the difference between the MSP and the model rates at the earliest. The meeting was told that Rs 197 crore will be reimbursed to the farmers. A programme will be organised at Ujjain to handover the amount to the farmers of the district.
Chouhan was told that barring Urad, the price of no other farm produce had gone down. Urad, however, is now selling for Rs 2,400 quintal, down from Rs 2,600 earlier.
