In a forceful counter to Rahul Gandhi’s charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to put an end to the provision of Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today cited figures and evidence to state that contrary to what is being said, the matter of fact is that over the last six years, the MSP on crops was progressively raised by the Modi government. In an interaction with farmers, Sarpanches, Panches and local activist of Block Nagri in district Kathua today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the opposition has no facts or figures to prove their criticism and are indulging in purely political rhetoric to denigrate path-breaking decision taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, it is therefore incumbent on us to fight out this motivated campaign at public level and reach out to the common farmers and people in general with facts and figures which can be verified by anybody. Substaintaing his point, Dr Jitendra Singh cited figures to state that for example, the per quintal MSP rate for Paddy was Rs.1410/- in 2015-16 which was raised to Rs.1470/- in 2016-17, further raised to 1550/- in 2017-18, further raised to 1750/- in 2018-19, further raised to 1815/- in 2019-20 and further to Rs.1868/- in 2020-21. Similarly, he said, per quintal MSP on wheat was Rs. 1525 in 2015-16, 1625/- in 2015-16, 1735/- in 2017-18, 1840 in 2018-19 and Rs.1925 in 2019-20. On peanut the per quintal MSP was Rs. 4030/- in 2015-16, 4220/- in 2016-17, 4450/- in 2017-18, 4890 in 2018-19, 5090 in 2019-20 and Rs.5275 in current year of 2020-21. He said, the list is long but a similar phenomena can also be noted in case of other items like Soyabean, Gram etc. Hitting out at Congress Party, Dr Jitendra Singh said, its leadership should first explain why the procurement was lesser during the UPA rule compared to the present NDA rule. Citing an instance, he said, while the wheat procurement from 2009 to 2014 during UPA rule was 1,395 Lakh Metric Ton, during the subsequent NDA-1 rule between 2014-19 it increased to Rs.1,457 Lakh Metric Ton. The truth is on our side, said Dr Jitendra Singh, and we must confront the opposition design with full confidence and moral strength. Among those who participated in the interaction included Sarpanch Tara Chand, Panch Kulbhusan Singh, farmers including Tara Chand, Saini and Chatter Singh, youth leader Gaurav Sharma and others. The programme was conducted by Lok Sabha constituency Incharge Sanjiv Sharma along with Kathua BJP President Raghunandan Singh and Executive Member Janak Bharati.
