Staying true to their promise to the farmers, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi on Sunday put forward a private member's bill seeking a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) with a proposed ₹1 lakh crore outlay.
The bill titled "The Farmers Right To Guaranteed Minimum Support Price Realization Of Agri-Produce Bill, 2021", has been submitted in the Parliament but it is yet to be introduced.
The aim of the bill would be to provide a legally guaranteed minimum support price for 22 crops that should be set at a profit margin of 50 percent over the comprehensive cost of production.
Notably, MPs can pilot their private members' bill irrespective of their party affiliations. As per Varun Gandhi's proposed legislation, any farmer realizing a price less than the declared MSP shall be entitled to compensation equal to the difference in value between the price realized and the guaranteed MSP.
It further says that the payments be made directly into the accounts of farmers within two days of the transaction.
This comes amid the Centre's backtrack on the three contentious farm laws and a week after the BJP government introduced the bill to repeal them.
Meanwhile, protesting farmers have also started to clear up the bordering areas of the capital Delhi and are on their way home after year-long protests.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to repeal the three farm laws, BJP MP Gandhi wrote to PM Modi that many "innocent lives" could have been saved had the decision been taken earlier.
Explaining his stance on the bill, Mr. Gandhi said the declaration of guaranteed MSP to farmers would result in an improved farm realisation for potentially 93 million agricultural households, leading to a resurgence in the rural economy.
