Minimum support price fixed for masoor dal

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 11. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today decided to fix a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs. 1,200 per quintal for `masoor dal'. This is the first time an MSP is being fixed for `masoor dal'.

Announcing the Cabinet decisions, the Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said the idea was to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of the pulse, which is mainly grown in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The MSP would be applicable from the current rabi marketing season. With this, the total number of commodities under the MSP regime goes up to 25.

The CCEA, also decided to authorise the Department of Commerce to decide on the MSP for rubber from time-to-time in accordance with a recent Supreme Court order.

As a special case, it decided to extend the training facilities for skill upgrading under the Urban Self-Employment Programme of the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana to those below the poverty line also in Gujarat.

The relaxation has been made to help out the earthquake survivors. It would, however, be time-bound and in force only up to September 30.

The Cabinet panel also decided to extend by one year the World Bank-assisted India Population Project VIII, under which integrated family welfare and primary health care services are being provided to the slum populations in Delhi and about 100 cities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal, including Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Kolkatta and to revise the project cost from Rs. 420 crores to Rs. 443 crores.

It decided to bring back the cotton ginning and pressing sector under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) as the earlier decision to place it within the ambit of the technology mission on cotton (TMC) was proving to be unproductive.

Contrary to expectations, the earlier decision was not encouraging modernisation of the sector as the incentive for modernisation offered under TMC was limited to 25 per cent of the total project cost and with a ceiling of Rs. 20 lakhs. TUFS, on the other hand, offers a subsidy of five per cent in interest rate.

Besides, the CCEA decided to extend the Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme in Maharashtra to June 30, 2006 on a suggestion from the State Government. The scheme, which has been in operation since 1972, was till now being extended on a yearly basis.

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