NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, DEC 12
Ruling BJP MP Varun Gandhi has piloted a private member’s bill seeking legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) with financial outlay of Rs 1 lakh crore.
The bill, titled The Farmers Right To Guaranteed Minimum Support Price Realization Of Agri-Produce Bill, 2021, aims to provide legally guaranteed minimum support price for 22 crops that should be set at a profit margin of 50 per cent over the comprehensive cost of production.
Varun Gandhi has submitted the bill in Parliament but it is yet to be introduced.
MPs can pilot private members’ bill in their personal capacity irrespective of their party affiliations. Since 1952, only about a dozen private members’ bills have been passed.
As per Gandhi’s proposed legislation, any farmer realising a price less than the declared MSP shall be entitled to a compensation equal to the difference in value between price realised and the guaranteed MSP.
It also proposes that payments should be made directly into the accounts of farmers within two days of the transaction.
The proposed legislation came a week after the Central government had introduced a bill to repeal the contentious farm laws.
The protesting farmers have postponed their stir from the borders of the national capital and started returning home after the Centre assured them of taking back cases, and forming a committee to look into the issue of MSP.
Varun Gandhi, the Pilibhit MP, had been publicly supporting the farmers and suggesting the government to engage with them.
He was among the first to seek “strict action” against his own party leader and Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra for his son’s alleged involvement in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident that left four farmers dead.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the repeal of the three farm laws, Gandhi wrote to Modi that many “innocent lives” could have been saved had the decision been taken earlier.
The proposed legislation came a week after the Central government had introduced a bill to repeal the contentious farm laws.
The protesting farmers have postponed their stir from the borders of the national capital and started returning home after the Centre assured them of taking back cases, and forming a committee to look into the issue of MSP.
Varun Gandhi, the Pilibhit MP, had been publicly supporting the farmers and suggesting the government to engage with them.
He was among the first to seek “strict action” against his own party leader and Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra for his son’s alleged involvement in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident that left four farmers dead.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the repeal of the three farm laws, Gandhi wrote to Modi that many “innocent lives” could have been saved had the decision been taken earlier.
