Supreme Court issues notice to govts over MSP

The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, Punjab and Haryana governments on a petition seeking minimum support price (MSP) and procurement by the government, including periodic increases in MSP, for every crop grown by farmers. A Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka on April 26 asked the Centre, governments of Punjab and Haryana, Central Pollution Control Board, Punjab Agriculture University, Central Ground Water Board, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) to respond to the petition filed by advocate Charanpal Singh Bagri and posted the matter for hearing on July 12. The petition also seeks guidance, financial assistance to farmers, locality-wise for producing crops according to settled principles by fixing MSP of each crop. The petitioner demanded crop diversification by providing alternative crops to replace paddy by providing higher MSP to new crops as a solution to the current agricultural problems in Punjab and Haryana.