State, Centre take steps to address unrest over MSP

Mumbai: After the Friday incident where Tuljapur youth, Dyaneshwar Salve, threatened to jump off the top floor of Mantralaya amid reports of unrest among farmers in the state over minimum support price (MSP), the state and central government machinery has taken steps to immediately address the issue. Soyabean, urad and moong purchase centres of the government will start within a week's time while centres for purchase of cotton too will start soon, agriculture minister Pandurang Phundkar informed on Saturday.

Farmers are very upset over prices of agricultural produce and the MSP issue. They are caught between a rock and a hard place with traders not offering them a good price and government not giving them reasonable MSP. The government's purchase centres too have not yet started. So, after the agitation at Mantralaya on Friday, Mr Phundkar met union minister Radhamohan Singh on Saturday in Mumbai. Though the meeting was scheduled earlier, Mr Phundkar urged Mr Singh to start purchase centres in the state immediately. Mr Singh directed officials of the marketing department to take necessary steps. Meanwhile state BJP spokesperson Ram Kadam claimed that Mr Salve was a NCP worker and it was a planned agitation. However, state NCP president Sunil Tatkare clarified that the NCP did not support such agitations. "Mr Salve is not a party worker," he said. Mr Tatkare however admitted that Mr Salve had called him before climbing the seventh floor of Mantralaya.