Centre wants states to procure pulses

|  | Jul 30, 2017, 04:52 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Centre is considering to pull out of the procurement of pulses at minimum support price (MSP), and instead ask states to procure the key farm produce, government sources said. 

As per the proposal, the Centre would bear about 30% of the amount spent for procurement on account of loss that agencies of state governments would incur during storage and release of pulses. 

TOI has learnt that this is being worked out after Centre failed to procure enough pulses at MSP post the bumper harvest, which has resulted in distress sale by farmers. 

Secondly, the Centre is also struggling to dispose off the old stock of about 1.8 million tonnes of pulses since states are not picking them up from the central pool. 

According to sources, the central outgo for compensating the states for their loss is estimated about Rs 1,800-Rs 2,000 crore. The proposal, which was presented to a committee of secretaries headed by Cabinet secretary, was recently discussed with state food secretaries. 

The issue even came up for brief discussion at the inter-ministerial meeting chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday evening. 

The proposal is yet to be finalised. At present, central agencies, including National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation and the Food Corporation India, are procuring pulses across the country at MSP. 

But considering the huge output of about 22.4 million tonne this year, the central agencies can't reach out to each and every market. 

Sources said states are not taking keen interest in procuring of pulses, and they usually pass the responsibility of ensuring MSP for farm produce to the Centre. Though the government fixes MSP for 23 farm produce, farmers get the floor price mostly for paddy and wheat. 

In the past couple of years, agencies have become proactive to buy pulses at MSP. Consumer affairs secretary Avinash Srivastava did not respond to any of the messages sent to him.

Reference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more