Centre keen to avoid price rise ahead of UP polls

If the slogan “arhar Modi” ruined the BJP’s prospects in the Bihar elections, the Cente is in no mood to take any such chances in Uttar Pradesh. Finance minister Arun Jaitley will hold a meeting on Wednesday with Union agriculture and food ministers Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan to aggressively intervene and procure pulses, amidst indications of a bumper crop, so that the prices of lentils don’t go up in the near future.

In a bid to prevent hoarding and market manipulation, the government, through its agencies, will directly purchase pulses from farmers and release them if there’s an indication of market prices going up. To make it attaractive for the farmers to sell the pulses to government agencies, the finance minister may announce enhanced bonuses and a minium support price (MSP), sources said.

“The bumper Karif crop of pulses will soon hit the market. The government is keen to ensure that the farmers do not fall victims to distress selling as had been the case with onion crops. The meeting called by the finance minister will seek to ensure that the farmers get the remunerative price, as had been announced in the MSP, as well as a bonus for the Kharif crops,” sources said.

In the case of moong dal, the government also announced that the MSP and bonus would be applicable on procurement from September 1 instead of October 1. “The prices of pulses will significantly come down once the bumper crop begins hitting the market. The government will go all out to procure as much as possible for the buffer stock, for which the target is 20 million tonnes,” sources added.

With the UP polls slated for 2017, the BJP is aiming to ensure that price rise does not become an issue.