All that was discussed in the House through the day
To provide the benefit of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers, government agencies procure the notified agricultural produce of Fair Average Quality at MSP directly from farmers, in consultation with the concerned state government / Union Territory as and when market prices of these produce fall below the MSP, according to prescribed guidelines, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar told the Rajya Sabha.
The payments to the farmers are made through Real Time Gross Settlement / National Electronic Fund Transfer and account payee cheque by the procuring agencies. However, if farmers get a better price in comparison to MSP, they are free to sell their produce in the open market, he added
Doubling farmers’ income
The Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income (DFI) recognises agriculture as a value-led enterprise and has identified seven major sources of growth — improvement in crop productivity; improvement in livestock productivity; resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production; increase in the cropping intensity; diversification towards high value crops; improvement in real prices received by farmers; and shift from farm to non-farm occupations, Tomar told the Rajya Sabha.
Pollution by industries
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in co-ordination with the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) had identified 1,162 units spread over 22 states / Union Territories as GPIs (Grossly Polluting Industries) in the year 2011 for taking concerted actions for control of pollution.
Of these, 992 industries were operational among which, 792 were complying with environmental standards, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Babul Supriyo told the Lok Sabha.
He added that according to the most recent data collated by CPCB from 36 states / Union Territories, 2,743 industries had been brought under the classification of GPIs for regular monitoring by CPCB / SPCBs.
Of these, 2,497 units were currently operational and 246 units had closed on their own. Among the operational units, 2,222 units had been reported to be complying with environmental standards.
Green Clearance Norms
The streamlining process of environmental clearances (ECs), carried out by the government had not diluted certain green clearance norms, Supriyo told the Lok Sabha.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had taken up several steps for streamlining the EC process and rendering it more transparent, which inter-alia included standardisation of EC conditions, forms for various applications under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification and a Single-Window Integrated Environmental Management System named PARIVESH (Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous and Environmental Single-window Hub), Supriyo added.
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