Telangana: Farmers to ensure minimum support price

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will accord statutory status to farmer coordination councils being set up from the village to the state level to ensure that agricultural produce gets the minimum support price (MSP).

An ordinance to this effect is likely to be issued within a week.

The ordinance will be replaced by an Act in the ensuing session of the State Legislature, which is expected to begin on October 10.

As of now, these councils were created by issuing GO Nos. 39 and 42 early this month, but, said a source in the chief minister's office, “The law department stated that the GOs issued for formation of councils will not stand legal scrutiny. An Act has to be passed in the Legislature for this. Since convening the Assembly session will take time, it was recommended to bring in the ordinance first.”

The state government will accord statutory status to farmer coordination councils being set up from the village to the state level to ensure that agricultural produce gets the minimum support price (MSP).

The state level council will be registered as a corporation or society and will be headed by a chairman and directors. The council will take loans from banks and financial institutions to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore for which the state government will stand guarantee.

Nearly 1.77 lakh farmers in these councils will be given a honorarium.

The councils will have the power to decide the MSP and select farmers for the Rs 8,000 per acre per year financial assistance promised by the government from May.

If traders quote a price that is lower than the MSP to purchase produce, the farmers' councils will directly purchase the stocks from farmers at MSP by utilising the Rs 5,000 crore seed fund provided by the state government.

The councils will be given licences to mill, process and export food grains.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Saturday and sought his approval for the ordinance.