Minister tells ryots not to panic over MSP

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 6.The Minister for Civil Supplies, Dr. N. Janardhan Reddy, reassured paddy farmers on Sunday that Government agencies would purchase the last grain of rice after paying the minimum support price for the fair average quality (FAQ).

He appealed to farmers to avoid panic reaction as they had done in Nizamabad by flooding the market yard with a huge quantity of one lakh quintals of rice on a single day last week.

Addressing a press conference here along with Mr. S. Ramachandra Reddy, TDP MP, he sought to allay their fears about import of cheap rice from China and asserted that the Government would, in any case, slap heavy excise duty on imports. Besides, the price of Sona Masuri was likely to increase to Rs. 700 a quintal, he added.

Conceding that farmers in some places were unable to get the minimum support price, Dr. Reddy said this was because the rice did not conform to the specified standards regarding foreign matter, unripe and discoloured grains and the moisture content. They should clean the grains before bringing stocks to the market, he added.

He urged the Leader of Opposition, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, and all political parties to refrain from holding meetings outside market yards as such actions did nothing to promote the farmers' cause. He, however, invited parties to depute representatives to market yards to monitor whether farmers were getting the MSP.

In case of non-payment of MSP, they could get technical experts available at the yards to analyse the samples and help the farmers get the right price. The Government, he said, would humbly accept positive suggestions from Opposition parties.

Referring to the CLP leader's high-profile visit to the Nizamabad market yard on Saturday, he said it was not proper for Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy to belittle the Government's Herculean efforts to help the farmers in the wake of a huge marketable rice surplus. It was no mean achievement for the TDP Government to have persuaded the Centre to procure 70 lakh tonnes of rice at a cost of Rs. 7,000 crores through the Food Corporation of India.

Further, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, had impressed upon the Centre the need to stop the movement of surplus rice from the Punjab and other north Indian States all the way to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. As a result, rice from AP could be moved to these States where godown space was now available.

Listing other efforts to bale out the farmer, he said the FCI had been made to procure Swarna Masuri and MTU 1001 at Rs. 540 a quintal on a par with other Grade A varieties. Even those farmers who grew maize, chillies, oilpalm and groundnut were assisted through market intervention by the Government.

It was the Government that took up a campaign in the Warangal, Mahabubnagar and Suryapet market yards to advise farmers against underselling paddy and cleaning it for getting a better price. At the party level, the TDP MPs had made representations to the Prime Minister to permit rice exports from the country.

Dr. Janardhan Reddy exuded confidence that the State would be allowed to export 20 lakh tonnes of rice since the Centre had accepted its request in principle. A group of Central Ministers were looking into the price structure against the backdrop of certain exporting countries selling rice at $ 150 a tonne.

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