Congress to protest across Madhya Pradesh, 'gherao' collectorates on Sept 20 seeking hike in MSP: Patwari

Bhopal: The Congress will hold a protest on September 20 across Madhya Pradesh seeking hike in minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce, the party's state unit chief Jitu Patwari said on Friday.

Offices of collectors of the all the 55 districts in the state will be "gheraod" (encircled) at 12 noon that day under the Congress' 'Kisan Nyay Yatra'. Patwari told reporters.

"The farmers across India are in distress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union agricultural minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan speak about doubling farmers' income but the condition of cultivators is going from bad to worse. We want the state government to procure soybean from farmers at Rs 6,000 per quintal, wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal and paddy at Rs 3,100," he said.

The BJP, in its manifesto for the MP assembly polls last year, promised MSP of Rs 2700 for wheat and Rs 3100 for paddy but these have been forgotten by the party after it retained power, he said.

"Our leader Rahul Gandhi wants legal guarantee for MSP. The PM, in a rally in Bareli in UP in February 2016, said farmers' income would be doubled by 2022. However, the National Statistical Office's report states the average daily income of farmers was Rs 27 and a farmer was laden with an average debt of Rs 74,000," Patwari pointed out.

"The cost of production in a hectare of land in the last 10 years has shot up by Rs 25000 due to the levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on tractors, agriculture implements, manure, pesticides, diesel which ranges from 5 to 18 per cent," he added.

In April last year, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (now Union agriculture minister), while speaking at a Panchayat Raj function in Rewa district, claimed income of MP farmers had doubled, which was contrary to the data in the report of a parliamentary committee of 2022, Patwari claimed.

"The report submitted to Lok Sabha said MP was a lone state in the country where the family income of farmers had dipped to Rs 8339 from Rs 9740 in 2015-16," the senior Congress leader added.