Is A Law On MSP Possible? Here Is What SC Panel Member Anil Ghanwat Said | Exclusive

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said farmers won’t leave the protest sites unless there was a discussion on legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.

Anil Ghanwat is one of the members of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws (File)

New Delhi: Anil Ghanwat, one of the members of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws, said it was not possible to make a legislation on Minimum Support Price (MSP).

His remark comes a day after Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said farmers won’t leave the protest sites unless there was a discussion on legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops and other issues.

READ | What Are The Three Farm Laws That Modi Govt Passed Last Year

"It is not possible to make a law on MSP. If the price of all the crops in the country is legally fixed, and if traders do not see it as profitable, the crop will not be purchased. The farmer will then go to the government. The government doesn't have enough money to buy a crop," Anil Ghanwat said.

"There is a stock of 110 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice. About Rs 2 lakh crore is stuck. The government does not have a warehouse to store the grain. Foodgrains do not reach the needy people. Official figures say that 46 per cent of foodgrains go waste. This grain does not reach the customers. If this system continues like this, a lot of the country's money will be stuck in it," Anil Ghanwat, who is president of the Shetkari Sanghatana, a Maharashtra-based farmers' union, said.

Will farmers' income double by 2022?

When asked about the PM Modi-led government's aim to double farmers' income by 2022, Anil Ghanwat said this "resolution cannot be fulfilled even by the year 3022".

"Not just 2022, this resolution cannot be fulfilled even by the year 3022. If similar laws continue in the country, similar agricultural policies continue in the country, the income of farmers can never be doubled. Right now, the government is working to halve the income of farmers," he said.

On November 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the three farm legislations would be repealed. On Monday, the Bill to repeal the three laws was passed within minutes of its introduction in both the Houses of Parliament on the first day of the winter session.