Kerala keen on paying fairprice for paddy procured

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said the government will agree to no strictures from the Union government on what should be the fair price at which the State should procure paddy from the farmers.

He made this statement when A.K. Saseendran of the Nationalist Congress Party served notice in the Assembly on Friday for moving an adjournment motion to discuss a reported move on the part of the Union government to bar State governments from hiking the procurement price of certain agricultural commodities beyond the level supported by Central assistance.

Mr. Saseendran said the argument was that high procurement price would cause market imbalances.

In Kerala, a quantity totalling 5.8 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured from the farmers last year, the State paying them Rs.5.90 a kg more than the procurement price of Rs.13.10 a kg fixed by the Centre, the Chief Minister said. Nothing could prevent the State government from paying for the procured paddy a price that was fair, he said.

Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said the reported Central move was in line with certain international pacts India had signed when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power at the Centre. He said the country had agreed to subsidy controls on farm commodities. He said a strong message should go to the Centre that Kerala stood united against such an anti-farmer move and therefore the Assembly should discuss the matter through an adjournment motion.

Mr. Chandy said there was no such contingency. “The government has not received any communication to that effect from the Centre. We cannot discuss the topic merely on the basis of media reports,” he said.