By IANS,
Raipur/New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh met union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi Thursday and urged him to raise the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to Rs.1,400 per quintal.
Raman Singh met Pawar along with six MPs from his state. He told the union minister that the MSP for paddy for the current fiscal should be increased to Rs.1,400 per quintal from the current Rs.950 for common grade paddy, while for grade-A variety it should be raised to Rs.1,430 per quintal from Rs.980.
An official statement here said the chief minister handed over a memorandum to Pawar and urged him that the central government should announce a bonus for paddy farmers that would take the per quintal procurement rate to Rs.1,400 per quintal if it was not possible to hike the MSP.
Singh told Pawar that paddy growers of Chhattisgarh had been hit by delayed monsoon and the state’s paddy output was expected to dip this year by 25 percent.
The delegation included Lok Sabha members Ramesh Bais of Raipur, Dilip Singh Judeo of Bilaspur, Murarilal Singh from Surguja and Chandulal Sahu from Mahasamund, besides two Rajya Sabha members – Srigopal Vyas and Shivpratap Singh.