In a move that is aimed at helping both the farmers and the consumers, Union Minister Piyush Goyal launched the ambitious project of Bharat brands. And the co-op bodies helping the govt in realizing its goals are-NAFED & NCCF.
The high voltage event was launched by Goyal flagging off 100 mobile vans for sale of wheat flour (Atta) under ‘Bharat’ brand from Kartavya Path, New Delhi on Monday.
The arithmetic is simple. The GOI would buy grains from farmers by offering them MSP through co-op bodies like NAFED and NCCF which will process the stuff and convert them into tested Bharat brand of Atta or Dal. The same would be made available to the consumers at a reasonable price. It’s a win-win situation for all the stakeholders-farmers, consumers and co-operatives.
The Atta will be available at an MRP not exceeding Rs 27.50/Kg. The launch of retail sale of ‘Bharat’ brand Atta will increase supplies in the market at affordable rates, and will help in continued moderation of prices of this important food item.
‘Bharat’ Atta will be available at all physical and mobile outlets of Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED and NCCF from Monday and will be expanded to other co-op/retail outlets”, said the Minister.
2.5 LMT of wheat @ Rs.21.50/kg has been allocated for Semi-Government and cooperative organizations i.e. Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF and NAFED under Open Market Sale Scheme [OMSS (D)] for converting to atta and offer it for sale to the public under ‘Bharat Atta’ brand at an MRP not exceeding Rs 27.50/Kg.
Speaking on this occasion, Goyal said that the Centre’s intervention has stabilised the price of essential commodities. He said that various measures were taken in the past with regard to Tomato and Onion to cool off prices. In addition, the Centre is providing Bharat Dal at Rs. 60 per kg through Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED and NCCF to provide relief to consumers.
He added that all these efforts have also benefited farmers a great deal. Goyal said that the produce of farmers is being purchased by the Centre and thereafter, is being provided to the consumers at a subsidised rate. He stressed that Centre’s intervention has led to stabilise prices of various commodities. He said that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has the vision to help the consumers as well as the farmers.
Bharat Dal (Chana dal) is already being sold by these 3 agencies @ Rs.60 per kg for 1kg pack and Rs.55 per kg for 30 kg pack from their physical and/or retail outlets, along with onions @ Rs.25 per kg. Now, with the launch of sale of ‘Bharat’ Atta, consumers can get Atta, dal as well as onions from these outlets at fair and affordable prices.
Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) has been set up to check the volatility in the prices of agri-horticultural
commodities in order to mitigate the hardships faced by consumers. Since the inception of Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) corpus in 2014-15 till date, the Government has provided budgetary support of Rs.27,489.15 crore for providing working capital and other incidental expenses for the procurement and distribution of agri-horticultural commodities.
Readers would recall that in order to check the volatility in prices of tomato NCCF and NAFED had procured tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making it available at affordable prices in major consuming centres in Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc. after subsidizing the price to the consumers.
