Badal wants Centre to raise wheat MSP

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal urged the Union government on Thursday to enhance the minimum support price of wheat, as the increase of Rs. 50 a quintal previously announced did not cover the cost incurred by the farmers to raise the crop.

In a statement, Mr. Badal, whose party is an alliance partner of the BJP, said the Centre had to reverse the anti-farmer and -poor policies of the previous United Progressive Alliance regime.

“That makes it all the more necessary for the NDA government to undo the crippling effects of the UPA legacy and adopt aggressively a pro-agriculture and -farming policy. Hiking the MSP beyond the Rs. 50 per quintal would be the first step in that direction,” he said.