Support price for rabi crop to increase

The government announced relaxation of norms for assistance to urban poor and enhanced minimum support price for rabi crop.

The government on Thursday announced relaxation of norms for assistance to urban poor and enhanced minimum support price (MSP) for rabi crop. The MSP of wheat, which earlier was Rs.1,000 per quintal for the 2008-09 marketing season, has been raised by Rs.80 to Rs.1,080 per quintal. Procurement of wheat, a major rabi crop, starts from April.

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The decision was one of the dozen-odd taken by the Cabinet and its committees chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.

Mishra said the cabinet had decided to treat Prasar Bharti employees at Akashvani and Doordarshan, who joined before October 2007, as government employees.

The cabinet also cleared the National Commission for Heritage Sites Bill for introduction in Parliament during the Budget Session. The Commission to be established under the new legislation was considered necessary as the existing legislative framework is inadequate to provide protection to a large number of heritage sites which are currently not conserved or maintained by the ASI or the state archaeology departments.

Deepak Sandhu, Media Adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed that the PM was likely to return home from AIIMS within “a few days”.