Elders Demand Higher Wheat Mopup Price

Members in the Rajya Sabha yesterday demanded higher remunerative prices for wheat to farmers, saying that if the government did not give more incentives to growers, the country will face serious foodgrain crisis.

Raising the issue during zero hour, S S Surjewala, S K Singla of the Congress and Iqbal Singh and K R Malkani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urged the government to take immediate steps to raise remunerative price of wheat as the farmers in the northern wheat growing states, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, were highly agitated.

The BJP members urged Union agriculture minister Chaturanan Mishra to study the entire issue and take appropriate action to mitigate the farmers woes.

Later, some Congress members rushed to the well of the House to draw the attention of the government towards the grave issue, but returned to their seats at the request of the chair.

S S Bhandari of the Bharatiya Janata Party drew the attention of the government towards the frequent derailment of trains in Rajasthan and urged the railway minister to order an inquiry into it.

Samajwadi Party member Raj Babbar demanded setting up of a parliamentary committee to go into the allotment of government accommodation to employees, saying their eviction without any fault of theirs would land them in great hardship.

The authorities which allotted the houses are guilty and not the allottees, he argued.