CPI-M demands legislation on profitable MSP for farmers

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on 15 June asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfill his poll promise of providing profitable Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers.

In a letter to Prime Minister Modi, Yechury questioned his silence over the "apathy of the state governments" with regard to the farmers' problem in the country.

Drawing his attention to the farmers' protest that have been taking place across the country, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Yechury asked Prime Minister Modi to pass legislation in the forthcoming monsoon session of parliament to provide profitable MSP to farmers.

"I am writing you to demand that your government introduce and pass legislation in the forthcoming Parliament's monsoon session which not only confers to the farmer the Right to sell at MSP, but also guarantees an automatic annual review of the MSP which will be 50 percent more than the comprehensive production costs as established by the Commission on Agricultural Costs Prices (CACP) for that year," demanded Yechury.

He said the current MSP for various crops fixed by the Centre 'barely' provides returns to the farmer.

"The two government agencies, the FCI and the NAFED, do not buy all the produce of the farmer, even at the existing MSP, forcing the farmer to distress sell his produce at a loss in the market," the letter read.

-ANI