India News | SAD Asks Centre to Recast the Committee on MSP

Chandigarh, Jul 19 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday demanded the Centre recast the committee on the minimum support price to include all stakeholders, including representatives from Punjab as well as agri-experts.

In a statement here, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema also asserted that the government should have avoided nominating members "who were the architects of the (now-repealed) farm laws."

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“Members with different mindsets and perspectives are the need of the hour as we now need to think beyond the farm laws which have been revoked and bring in changes as per the wishes of the farming community. Starting from a clean slate is the need of the hour”, the SAD leader said adding the committee should include representatives "who do not have any conflict of interest".

Cheema also highlighted the need to not only finalize the MSP guarantee but guarantee assured purchase on MSP.

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“This is a necessity as the central government has earmarked MSP for all crops but only wheat and paddy are being purchased on MSP. This issue should be discussed first and finalized and implemented to the satisfaction of farmers. Other recommendations can be given later," he said.

Notably, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, on Tuesday rejected the government's committee on minimum support price, saying "so-called farmer leaders" who supported the now-repealed farm laws are its members, and declared that it will not be a part of the panel.

Under the umbrella of SKM, thousands of farmers had held a year-long agitation at Delhi borders and forced the government to withdraw the farm laws.

While announcing the repeal of three farm laws in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to set up a committee to look into various demands of farmers.

The agriculture ministry issued a gazette notification announcing the committee in this regard. The panel comprises Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand, agri-economists CSC Shekhar from the Indian Institute of Economic Development and Sukhpal Singh from IIM-Ahmedabad and senior member of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Naveen P Singh.

Among farmers' representatives, the panel has national award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, three members from SKM, and five members from other farmer organisations that include Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel.

Two members of the farmers' cooperative, IFFCO Chairman Dilip Sanghani and CNRI General Secretary Binod Anand, are included in the panel.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)