MP: Congress ends BBY Scheme for Farmers

The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh decided to end the Bhavanatar Bhugtan Yojana which was started by the BJP to provide a cushion to farmers against the falling prices of agriculture. 

Arguing that the scheme wasn’t of much help to the farmers, MP Agriculture Minister, Sachin Yadav said on Monday that the scheme was being wound up. He said the Congress government would continue pro-farmer schemes of the previous government as long as they were in the interest of farmers. 

The BBY scheme, i.e. the Price Deficiency Payment Scheme was launched by the Chauhan government in MP in 2017 due to rising farmers protest demanding remunerative prices and loan waivers. It compensated the farmers registered under it if their selling price in the market was lower than the official minimum support price (MSP). Though there were problems in implementation, lot of farmers had their faith in the scheme. A lot of critics however felt that it supported traders more than farmers. 

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the former CM criticized the Congress government for doing away with a pro farmer scheme. He stated that by winding up the scheme, the Govt. wants to escape paying Rs 500/quintal on soybean and maize (as per the scheme). Yadav however accused the BJP government of ‘fabricating’ issues as they have no answers to the pro-farmer steps taken by the Congress.