M A I N   N E W S

Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh CMs win poll

Raipur, February 23
While Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has scored an impressive win over his BJP rival Amar Singh Kusro in his maiden assembly election from Marwahi (ST) in Bilaspur district with a record margin of 50,758 votes, Jharkhand Chief Minister Babu Lal Marandi won the Ramgarh Assembly seat.

Mr Jogi polled 71,211 votes and Mr Kusro 20,453 votes.

Bahujan Samaj Party’s Deendayal Otti fared a poor third scoring just 907 votes, followed by Mr Omprakash Dhruv (Independent) 428 votes and Mr Govind (Independent) 85 votes. As many as 2852 votes were declared invalid.

With Mr Jogi’s victory, the strength of the ruling Congress in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha has risen to 50. When Mr Jogi assumed office on the formation of the Chhattisgarh state in November last year, the strength of the Congress was 48. With the split in the three-member BSP and the breakaway faction led by Mr Chhabilal Ratre (MLA) joining the Congress, the ruling party’s strength rose to 49. UNI

Badal, Chautala meet PM on support price
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23
Worried over the Centre’s hesitation in announcing the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat, the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana met the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee this morning and asked him to speed up action on their demand for a remunerative procurement price.

The Union Cabinet, over the past several weeks, has been postponing a decision on the subject. The matter was listed in the Cabinet’s agenda during the last week of January but it could take no decision as Mr Parkash Singh Badal and his Haryana counterpart, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, put pressure on the Centre to consider a hike in the MSP.

While the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has recommended a reduction of around Rs 60 in the present MSP of Rs 580 per quintal for wheat, Punjab and Haryana have demanded that the procurement price of wheat be fixed at around Rs 735.

Emerging out of the meeting, Mr Badal said the prices of the agricultural produce were not increasing in comparison to the increasing cost of living and the cost of production. He also stressed upon the need to safeguard the interests of the farmers as this was in the “national interest”.

Mr Chautala said : “Mr Vajpayee has full sympathy for the farmers and we are quite hopeful that justice will be done to them.”

“We are aware that the country is passing through a phase of problems and economic constraints, but the farmers’ interests also need to be safeguarded”. The Chief Minister cautioned the Prime Minister that if the farmers were disheartened, the country might be forced to import foodgrains. Farming today was not a profitable profession as the cost of production was increasing every day, he added.

Mr Badal and Mr Chautala took the plea that the MSP should be related to the input price index, the wholesale price index, management costs, farmers marketing costs and parity price with paddy. Moreover, the farmers of the two states had toiled to feed the country’s millions who went to bed hungry and had pulled the nation from the brink of famine and scarcity to become surplus in foodgrains.

The contribution of the two states to the Central pool was up to 80 per cent. Therefore, it was imperative to safeguard the economic interests of the farmers.

An indication of the government’s thinking on MSP was available in the Economic Survey presented in the Lok Sabha today. The survey has pointed out that the average annual rise in the MSP of rice and wheat was about 10 per cent higher in the post-reform period as compared to 6.2 to 7.5 per cent rise before 1992-1993.

In fact, in the post-reform period (1992-93-1999-2000)the annual average increase in the MSP has been higher than the annual average inflation. This is perhaps the main reason why the rate of procurement and accretion to public stocks of foodgrains has been unprecedently high over the past two years.

Higher procurement prices invariably cause the FCI to procure more than what is required for food security, leading to much higher commitments for government subsidy, while lower volumes stocked by trade means higher market price during the lean season.

The subsidy on foodgrains incurred by the Central Government in 2000-2001 is estimated to be around Rs 8,100 crore.