Paddy protest at PM146;s doorstep

To further pressure the Centre into starting procurement of paddy crop in Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today threatened to stage an indefinite sit-in protest outside the Prime Minister8217;s residence from Thursday.

Amarinder said the entire Cabinet, party legislators and MPs will participate in the demonstration. 8216;8216;We have informed Congress chief Sonia Gandhi about the protest and she has given us the go-ahead,8217;8217; he said. His partymen would also block trains in Punjab on Friday for one hour.

Amarinder, who met Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today, has been demanding an early announcement of the minimum support price MSP by the Centre. He has also demanded that the Centre scrap the new MSP formula that restricts the state government8217;s share of taxes on the procurement from 11.5 to 4 per cent. The new formula, if implemented, would incur a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to the Punjab government.