By IANS
Raipur : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week demanding a hike in the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy from Rs.695 per quintal to Rs.1,000 per quintal for the current kharif season.
In last fiscal, the MSP fixed for common paddy was Rs.620 per quintal, and for wheat it was Rs.850. Now the central government has raised the MSP for wheat to Rs.1,000 per quintal for 2007-08, but the MSP for paddy remains just Rs.695 per quintal, read the letter to the prime minister.
“I strongly demand an MSP hike in paddy to do justice to millions of poor paddy farmers,” the chief minister saqid in his letter.
During 2006-07 kharif season, the Chhattisgarh government procured over four million tonnes of paddy through co-operative committees across 18 districts and paid a little over Rs.30 billion to cultivators.
This is the second time within four months that Raman Singh has written Manmohan Singh. In July this year, he urged the prime minister through a letter to ban the export of iron ore.