STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Moving ahead with its “one nation, one election” plan, the government on Wednesday accepted a high-level panel’s recommendations for holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies in a phased manner after a countrywide consensus-building exercise.
Asserting that several political parties are already on board, the government said even those parties that are opposed to it may now feel pressure from within to change their stand due to the widespread support on the issue from the people of the country.
Announcing the Union Cabinet’s approval to the proposal, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said an implementation group would be formed to take forward the recommendations of the panel headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind and detailed discussions would be held on various fora across the country over the next few months.
Approves continuation of PM-AASHA to provide better prices to farmers
NEW DELHI: The government has approved continuation of the PM-AASHA scheme, with an outlay of Rs 35,000 crore, to provide better prices to farmers and also control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers.
“The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the continuation of schemes of Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) to provide remunerative prices to farmers and to control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers,” an official statement said.
The total financial outgo will be Rs 35,000 crore during the 15th Finance Commission Cycle up to 2025-26, it added.
The government has converged the Price Support Scheme (PSS) and Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) schemes in PM-AASHA to serve the farmers and consumers more efficiently.
“The Integrated scheme of PM-AASHA will bring in more effectiveness in the implementation which would not only help in providing remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce but also control the price volatility of essential commodities by ensuring their availability at affordable prices to consumers,” the government said.
PM-AASHA will now have the components of Price Support Scheme (PSS), Price Stabilization Fund (PSF), Price Deficit Payment Scheme (POPS) and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).
PM-AASHA is an umbrella scheme to ensure MSP (minimum support price) to farmers.
Under the PSS, the procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds and copra at MSP will be 25 per cent of national production from 2024-25 season onwards. This would enable states to procure more of these crops at MSP from farmers to prevent distress sale.
“However, this ceiling will not be applicable in case of tur, urad and masur for 2024-25 season as there will be a 100 per cent procurement of tur, urad and masur during in 2024-25 season as decided earlier,” the government said.
The Centre has renewed and enhanced the existing government guarantee to Rs 45,000 crore for procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds and copra at MSP.
This will help in more procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra whenever prices fall below MSP in the market.
The purchases will be undertaken by the Department of Agriculture from farmers at MSP including pre-registered farmers on eSamridhi portal of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and eSamyukti portal of National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF).
“This would also motivate the farmers to cultivate more of these crops in the country and contribute in achieving self-sufficiency in these crops leading to reduction in dependence on imports to meet domestic requirement,” the government said.
The extension of the PSF scheme will help in protecting consumers from extreme volatility in prices of agri-horticultural commodities by maintaining strategic buffer stock of pulses and onion for calibrated release.
The scheme would help discourage hoarding and unscrupulous speculation.
Procurement of pulses at market price will be done by the Department of Consumer Affairs including Pre-registered farmers on eSamridhi portal of NAFED and eSamyukti portal of NCCF whenever prices rule above MSP in the market.
Apart from buffer maintenance, the interventions under PSF scheme have been undertaken in other crops such as tomato and in subsidized retail sale of Bharat DaIs, Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice.
In order to encourage the states to come forward for implementation of Price Deficit Payment Scheme (PDPS) as an option for Notified oilseeds, the coverage has been enhanced from existing 25 per cent of state production of oilseeds to 40 per cent and also enhanced the implementation period from 3 months to 4 months for the benefits of farmers.
The compensation of difference between MSP and Sale/Modal price to be borne by Central Government is limited to 15 per cent of MSP.
The extension of implementation of the MIS with changes will provide remunerative prices to farmers growing perishable horticulture crops.
“The Government has increased the coverage from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of production and has added a new option of making differential payment directly into the farmers’ account instead of physical procurement under MIS,” the statement said.
To bridge the price gap in TOP (Tomato, Onion & Potato) crops between producing states and consuming states during peak harvesting time, the Government has decided to bear the transportation and storage expenses for the operations undertaken by nodal agencies like NAFED and NCCF.
Asked by reporters when the recommendations could be implemented and whether a bill would be brought in the upcoming winter session of Parliament, Vaishnaw evaded a direct reply but pointed out that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the government would implement it in its current tenure.
After the discussions are completed, implementation would follow in steps and it would be the government’s endeavour to build a consensus over the next few months, he said.
Once the consultation process is over, the government will draft a bill, place it before the cabinet and subsequently, take it to Parliament for simultaneous polls to come into effect, he added.
In its report submitted to the government in March, just before the general election was announced, the panel recommended implementing “one nation, one election” in two phases — simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the first phase and elections for local bodies like panchayats and municipal bodies within 100 days of the general election in the second phase.
It also recommended a common electoral roll, which would need coordination between the Election Commission of India (ECI) and state election commissions. At present, the ECI is responsible for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, while the local body elections for municipalities and panchayats are managed by the state election commissions.
The panel has recommended a total of 18 constitutional amendments, most of which will not need ratification by state Assemblies. However, these would require certain Constitution amendment bills that would have to be passed by Parliament.
Some proposed changes regarding the single electoral roll and single voter ID card would need ratification by at least half of the states.
Separately, the Law Commission is also likely to come up soon with its own report on simultaneous polls, of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a strong votary.
Sources said the Law Commission is likely to recommend holding simultaneous polls for all three tiers of the government — the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies and local bodies like municipalities and panchayats — starting 2029 and a provision for a unity government in cases like a hung house.
The country had simultaneous elections between 1951 and 1967 but thereafter, polls started getting dispersed due to various reasons, including mid-term elections.
Holding all polls simultaneously will require a lot of manoeuvring, including advancing some elections and delaying some others.
While the Lok Sabha polls were held in May-June this year, states like Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh also went to polls along with the parliamentary election.
The Assembly election process for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana is currently underway, while Maharashtra and Jharkhand are also scheduled to go to polls later this year.
Delhi and Bihar are among the states that are scheduled to go to polls in 2025.
The terms of the current assemblies in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry will end in 2026, while the terms of the Goa, Gujarat, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assemblies will end in 2027.
The terms of the state assemblies in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Telangana will end in 2028.
The terms of the current Lok Sabha and the state assemblies that went to polls together this year will end in 2029.
