Soya beans kept for sale at an retail outlet. Rep image. The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) approved a proposal to increase the MSP for soya bean to ₹4,800 per quintal from the current price of close to ₹4,000. The decision was taken at the State Cabinet’s meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. The move also comes on a day when the State unit of the Congress started its Kisan Nyay Yatra. Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, who briefed the press on the Cabinet’s decisions, said that the proposal will be now sent to the Centre for its nod.“The Chief Minister made a proposal at the meeting that we will request the Centre to increase the soya bean MSP to ₹4,800 because the current rate in the market is ₹4,000. The farmers think that they have had a good produce this year but they are not getting the right price,” said Mr. Vijayvargiya.Madhya Pradesh is the largest soya bean producing State in the country with over 50% of the nation’s production and is also known as the ‘Soya bean State’. Various farmer outfits and the Opposition Congress have been demanding a significant hike in the soya bean MSP for a few weeks now. Congress leader and former CM Digvijaya Singh had recently demanded that the MSP be raised around ₹6,000 per quintal and had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention into the matter. Mr. Singh had alleged that the price of soya bean was still around what the farmers were getting about 11 years ago. Earlier in the day, Union Agriculture Minister and former State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reiterated the Centre’s commitment of buying soya bean at the MSP and said that proposals of three States had already been approved and Madhya Pradesh’s proposal will be taken up soon. Meanwhile, M.P. Congress president Jitu Patwari, who kick-started the Kisan Nyay Yatra in Mandsaur, alleged that Mr. Yadav and Mr. Chouhan were “cheating” the farmers. “Today Shivraj Singh Chouhan is going to other States and saying that the support price of soya bean will be ₹6,000. But is he giving the support price of ₹6,000 for soya bean in Madhya Pradesh, where the maximum soya bean is produced,” asked Mr. Patwari, vowing that his party will hold State-wide protests till the crop prices of soya bean, rice and wheat are increased. The State Cabinet also approved a proposal worth ₹614 crore aimed at maintaining the water flow in the Shipra river. Mr. Vijayvargiya said that the Cabinet also discussed plans to celebrate the time period from Mr. Modi’s birthday on September 17 to Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2 as cleanliness fortnight and run cleanliness campaigns at various levels across the State.  Published – September 11, 2024 01:12 am IST