CM to meet PM to press for paddy MSP hike
Hyderabad, Oct 23 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on November two to press for a hike in the Minimum Support Price for Paddy to Rs 1,000 per quintal.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister while chairing a cabinet meeting here today, Information Minister A Ramanarayana Reddy told reporters.
The Chief Minister would also impress upon his counterparts in rice-growing states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to jointly persuade the Centre to implement the M S Swaminathan Committee recommendation on the criteria for arriving at MSP, he said.
Dr Reddy would urge the Centre to hike the MSP for all agricultural commodities taking into account the cost of cultivation and reasonable profit for peasants.
Terming
as
''politically-motivated,''
the
opposition
TDP's
stir
in
support
of
farmers,
he
said
peasants
would
be
able
to
see
through
the
''double
standard''
of
former
Chief
Minister
N
Chandrababu
Naidu,
who
had
dismissed
farming
as
''sheer
waste.''
UNI