Agriculture: SJM urges Modi for 'course correction' in NITI Aayog

The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a "course correction" in the Union government's thinktank NITI Aayog, after a member of the policy-making body reportedly termed the MSPs given to farmers inflationary.

SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said in a letter to the prime minister that NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand has called the support prices offered by the government inflationary.

This statement by Chand is an "insult" to the political leadership, which took the "great" decision of fixing the MSPs for crops at one-and-a-half times their production cost, he said.

"Government should ask Ramesh Chand to provide the empirical study, source or minutes of stakeholder consultations done to reach these conclusions, if he fails to do the same; we demand that appropriate action be taken in this regard," the SJM said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his budget speech announced the enhanced MSP of the farmers 1.5 times of the cost of production.

"After that (announcement) this malafide and ill-informed statement will only add to confusions in the minds of farmers," Mahajan said.

"There is need for course correction in NITI Aayog especially in the agriculture and food security segment," he said.

Mahajan said MSPs keep farmers and farming alive and for a long time have kept encouraging the production.