Bhopal: At a meeting held to review the proposed Mukhya Mantri Price Deficit Financing Scheme here on Thursday, CM Shivraj Singh objected to many provisions of the scheme. He said he might announce the scheme on August 21.
The CM said the provision of weekly review of rates should be done away with. Instead, one rate should be fixed for the entire season based on the rates prevailing in the mandis of the state and of two other states. If the market price is found to be less than the MSP or the Market Intervention Price, the farmers should be compensated at the rate of Rs 500 per quintal.
He also objected to the stipulation that the scheme would become operational only if the market price is at least Rs 50 per quintal higher than the MSP or the Market Intervention Price. He said farmers should be provided relief no matter what the difference was and also that the reimbursement should be a minimum of Rs 500 per quintal. He said only economics couldn’t be the basis of formulating such schemes. The misery of farmers should also be considered. “Let emotions guide you,” he told the officers.
He said the Centre had assented to this scheme being implemented in the state as a pilot project and therefore, it should be designed in a way that other states follow it. Chief secretary BP Singh told the meeting that instead of Girdwari App, farmers should be registered for providing benefits under the scheme. He said the Girdwari App was useless and it did not even generate OTPs. He said in Ujjain division, barely two per cent farmers were using the app.
