Haryana govt to set up vegetable price stability fund

Haryana government will soon set up a vegetable price stability fund to address seasonal fluctuations in the prices of key perishable and non- perishable vegetables. "As perishable vegetables like potato and tomato cannot be stored for long and the farmers have no solution to this problem, it has been decided to set up a separate vegetable price stability fund to provide assistance to the farmers in the event of price fluctuations," Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters here today. When asked about implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee, Khattar said the issue was being politicised by the opposition. "The committee's report came in 2006, but even former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was also the Chairman of Working Group on Agriculture Production, did not dare to implement the recommendations when Congress was in power," he said, pointing out that opposition was raking up the issue for political interests. Khattar said that Swaminathan Commission report had many facets and the present government had fulfilled many of these.