Bjp May Remodel Cacp To Calm Allies

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition at the Centre is keen on changing the composition of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to include its own representatives.

The Akali Dal, a constituent of the coalition, is urging the Centre to include its nominee as a representative of farmers in the high-powered commission which decides on, among other things, the procurement prices of agricultural commodities.

The BJP, which is trying to shed its pro-urban image and expand its influence among the rural vote bank, also intends to have a say in the exercise. The process is already on to identify the likely vacancies as well as to shortlist candidates for the posts.

 

The government seems to be of the opinion that some members of the commission are not in tune with its thinking. Besides, the revamp exercise provides the ruling dispensation an avenue for accommodating some of its workers who have failed to make it to the central or state legislatures.

Of the three official members of the CACP, chairman Abhijit Sen and member M S Bhatia are unlikely to be touched because apart from being apolitical ,they are also economists of repute. The third official member, D K Marothia, is to complete his three-year term before the year-end and is likely to be replaced by a nominee of the coalition partners.

The post of member-secretary is in any case vacant but cannot accommodate a political representative as it has to be filled by a service officer of the government chosen by a search committee.

Therefore, the axe can fall on the three unofficial members: Y V Krishna Rao, G S Brar and R G Saxena. The three were appointed by the United Front government.

While Rao is said to be a supporter of the CPI and was inducted by former agriculture minister Chaturanan Mishra, Brar is a defeated former MLA from Punjab who was granted a second term as CACP member by the UF government. Saxena, a commerce teacher in Delhi University, might also be replaced by somebody concerned more directly with agriculture and its allied fields.