The move comes close to the massive electoral losses the BJP suffered in the reserved tribal constituencies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Deepak Khandekar, secretary (tribal affairs), said, "MSPs had been fixed at the lower side and there was a need to increase it to ensure a fair price to the tribals. We have also included more products.”
NEW DELHI: The Centre has introduced minimum support price (MSP) for 17 more minor forest produce and effected a 5% to 200% increase in the MSP of 19 forest items, giving a big thrust to the BJP-led government’s tribal outreach programme ahead of the general election. The scheme, launched by Congress-led UPA government in 2013-14, involves fixing MSP for 24 identified minor forest produce (MFPs) which are collected by tribals in remote areas for sale in village ‘haats’. When the market price of any of these MFPs falls below the MSP, state government agencies move in to procure the produce.
The Centre’s latest move takes the total number of items in the ambit of the scheme to 40. These products include mahua flowers, tejpatta, jamun dried seeds, dried amla pulp, marking nut, soap nut, bhava seed, arjuna bark, kokum, giloe, kaunch seed, chirata, vavding, nux vomica and dhavaiphool.
The ministry of tribal affairs has removed palash flower from the list. Apart from three products (where prices have remained the same) and one (where it has declined) minimum support price has been increased for 19 MFPs. The maximum increase in MSP of 200% has been for hill broom grass.
Deepak Khandekar, secretary (tribal affairs), told ET, “MSPs had been fixed at the lower side and there was a need to increase it to ensure a fair price to the tribals. We have also included more products.”
The scheme, however, has remained a non-starter. The Centre had earmarked Rs 1,172 crore for the first five years to rollout the scheme in the states. So far, only 25% of the funds earmarked till 2018-19 – about Rs 300 crore – has been released to the states. Of this, Rs 275 crore is lying unutilised.
As per government’s statistics, MFPs worth Rs 128 crore were bought by state agencies, of which MFPs worth Rs 75 crore are still lying in the state godowns without any value addition.
“So far, Chhattisgarh is the only state which has implemented the scheme properly,” Khandekar said. “But we haven’t got any audited reports from any state to claim losses. There are linkages that need to be built for proper implementation of the scheme.”
The move comes close to the massive electoral losses the BJP suffered in the reserved tribal constituencies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
In Chhattisgarh, of the 29 ST reserved constituencies, the party won four seats –down from its 2013 tally of 11. Congress won 24 seats.
In Madhya Pradesh, of the 47 ST reserved seats, BJP registered its worst-ever performance, winning only 16 seats. It lost 15 seats in the state. Congress, on the other hand, improved its tally by 14 seats and cornered the lion’s share by winning 29 ST reserved segments.
In Rajasthan, the BJP lost eight seats and won only 10 of the 25 ST reserved seats.
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