The masala that’s cooking in the Telugu states seems to be compete with the spiciness of the Mirchi itself. Centre on Wednesday announced it would buy the chilli at market intervention price(MIP) of rupees 5,000 per quintal till May 31 with an overhead charge of rupees 1,250. If there are any losses, it would be shared equally by the Central Government and the State Governments. But, the loss is limited to 25 per cent of the procurement price, including the permissible overhead charges. The State Agencies can procure maximum of of 88,300 MTs of Red Chilli in Andhra Pradesh and 33,700 MTs in Telangana under the scheme.
This intervention did not satisfy both TDP and TRS. BJP-ally TDP went easy even though it is not satisfied while TRS came down heavily on the government.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu expressed discontent over the MIP. He said mirchi farmers should be given at least 8000 rupees per quintal. He stated that if the MSP is less than rupees 8,000 per quintal, the state government is providing a bonus of rupees 1,500. He wanted the central government to share the additional 1500 charge equallt. The TDP government decided to purchase 20quintal from each farmer giving a benefit of rupees 30000 to each farmer.
On the other hand, Telangana Irrigation Minister Harish Rao criticized the Centre for its delayed response and said that state government wrote a letter on March31 demanding purchase of chilli at 7000rupees. He termed the MIP scheme as “Joke of the Millennium”. He said the centre asked the state to procure only 33,000 MT of best quality Chilli at Rs. 5,000 per quintal while the state has 7lakh MT of chilli. The best quality is already fetching 6000 per quintal and questioned about the low-quality chilli. While Telangana is demanding 7000rupees per quintal, it is not offering any bonus like its counterpart AP.
If the woes are not addressed soon, farmer’s might follow Former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury’s suggestion to send chilli bags to the Chief Minister’s residence Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad.
