UNION Agriculture Minister promises to buy every grain of wheat from the drought-affected farmers despite
its quality
New Delhi : Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s trip to Punjab’s ‘Mandis’ (wholesale grain markets) and narration of plight of farmers in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday prompted Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan announced every grain of wheat will be bought by the government and that too without any value cuts for quality.
The Government had already spurred into action from Rahul’s bid to connect with the farmers through the Punjab trip on Tuesday as the Union Cabinet decided to reimburse the money paid in lieu of not effecting any value cuts in the minimum support price (MSP) for the procurement.
Paswan had been declaring piecemeal relaxations in the quality cuts like allowing broken grains up to 10% instead of 6% and those losing lustre up to 90%, but he sought to prevent Rahul’s popularity while giving thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deciding to give farmers full value irrespective of quality.
He has also denied Rahul’s charge that the Punjab farmers were crying for the government not procuring the wheat brought in the Mandis, pointing out that as much as 57 lakh tonnes of wheat out of 64 lakh tonnes coming in the state’s markets has been already bought.
Officials said the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the government agency for procurement, has already bought 158.61 lakh tonnes of wheat in the current season as against 169.29 lakh tonnes.
The House witnessed heated exchanges and even a 10-minute adjournment on a taunt by minister for food processing Harsimrat Kaur, daughter-in-law of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and wife of Deputy CM, as to where Rahul was when the farmers battled with hailstorm and unseasonal rains and why he has not gone to his own constituency (Amethi in U.P.) for long instead of going to Punjab.
The Congress protests at her ‘personal allegation’ of Rahul not visiting his constituency died down only after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan agreed to go through records and expunge ‘any personal remarks’.
