BJP to launch agitation on MSP for Paddy in all states

Hyderabad, Dec 7 (UNI) Alleging that the Centre was not responding to the demand of hike of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy at Rs 1000 per quintal, BJP national spokesperson and Andhra Pradesh party in-charge Prakash Javadekar today said the BJP would launch nationwide agitation on the MSP after the Gujarat elections.

Speaking to newspersons here, Mr Javadekar claimed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not willing to hike the MSP for paddy on the grounds that the prices of commodities would increase and inflation rate would jump. The Prime Minister's stand was condemnable, he alleged.

Pointing out that ten years ago, the MSP for paddy was more than the MSP for Wheat, but now the situation was totally different, he said the method of calculating the cost of paddy production was faulty. The method does not reflect the right cost of production, he alleged.

Demanding that the Centre implement MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations, which recommended to provide MSP at the rate of the cost of production plus 50 per cent of the total production cost, the BJP leader said the productivity of the paddy would see a decline in the 11th five year plan, if adequate MSP was not provided.

as the Centre targets 100 million tonnes of paddy production additionally to meet the shortage.

Mr Javadekar said the BJP would realise the dreams of Telangana people by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh and forming separate Telangana within the three months of the party coming to power at the Centre.

UNI