MP CM meets Prez; apprises him about crop loss due to rains

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today met President Pranab Mukherjee and apprised him about severe loss to crops caused by unseasonal rains and hailstorm in his state.
At the meeting, Chouhan said houses, livestock and infrastructure including roads, electrical transformers have been badly affected, according to an official release.
The Chief Minister alleged that despite his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on the matter earlier, nothing has been done by the Centre to help Madhya Pradesh farmers.
The Union government's attitude on such a sensitive issue is not at all co-operating, Chouhan said.

He requested the President to intervene in the matter and declare the situation a national calamity.
The CM sought a relief package of Rs 5,000 crore from the Union government and also asked the Centre to send a study team to assess the amount of damage caused by excessive rains and hailstorm.

Almost all 51 districts in the state have been badly affected by unseasonal rains and hailstorm, he claimed.
Excessive rainfall has very badly affected the crops of gram, wheat, vegetables and horticulture, he said.
Chouhan said in August, September and October 2013 also state witnessed massive floods due to excessive monsoon rains and this had an adverse affect on the soyabean crop.

Chouhan also requested to declare the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for gram as Rs 3,100 per quintal.
Under the price support policy, NAFED, a Union government agency, procures grams from farmers under MSP.
He said the gram crop is ready to come in the market and the market price is Rs 2,200-2,300 per quintal.