Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday set up a committee under agriculture minister Ravindra Choubey to ensure the payment of Rs 2500 per quintal to farmers against procurement of paddy on minimum support price.
A press release issued by the state government said the committee will examine the schemes of central and state governments for provisions of financial aids for farmers and after detailed discussion-deliberation on all the aspects and submit recommendation within a month.
Tribal development minister Premsai Tekam, forest minister Mohammad Akbar and food minister Amarjeet Bhagat will be its members, the release said.
The Baghel-led Congress government had announced it will form the panel in November last year and the chief minister had said that the notified minimum support price and the difference amount will also be transferred into the farmers’ account.
The minimum support price for paddy will be given to farmers as per rate fixed by the Centre—Rs 1815 per quintal for common grade paddy and Rs 1835 per quintal for Grade A paddy—while a new scheme will be initiated in order to pay the farmers the difference amount to make it Rs 2500 per quintal, he had said.
Baghel, who took over as chief minister in December 2018 after the Congress won the assembly polls with a thumping majority ending the 15-year rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had promised in his manifesto that he will procure paddy at the rate of Rs 2500 per quintal.
But the chief minister has repeatedly said that the central government is not cooperating in fulfilling his paddy promise.
“We bowed down to satisfy the ego of the Centre and decided to purchase paddy at the rate fixed by the central government from December 1,” Baghel said in November 2019.
