Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the central government must allay fears of the farmers that the new agricultural laws would dismantle the minimum support price mechanism, under which the Centre buys their produce, PTI reported.
“The Centre has proposed to hold talks with the agitating farmers,” the chief minister said. “Once they sit across the table, it will become clear that fears over MSP are unfounded.”
The chief minister said the government must also clear misconceptions about the legislation that allows farmers to sell outside mandis notified by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee.
Kumar spoke of his own experience of abolishing Agricultural Produce Market Committee mandis in 2006, and how it helped Bihar in boosting production. “As you all know, we had abolished these [APMC mandis] way back in 2006 and introduced a system for procurement through PACS [primary agriculture credit societies],” he said. “Procurement in Bihar, in…