3 min readNew DelhiMar 19, 2026 05:03 AM IST
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Demands for Grants of various ministries for 2026-27 by approving an expenditure of over Rs 53 lakh crore without discussion by applying the guillotine. Earlier, the House discussed Demands for Grants for the Railways and Agriculture ministries.
The Appropriation Bill (2) Bill-2026, which was moved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and seeks to authorise payment and appropriation of certain sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2026-27, was also passed.
Proceedings witnessed the Opposition’s demand for a legal guarantee to the Minimum Support Price for agricultural produce, countered by the government saying that states were not implementing Central government schemes only because they carried the Prime Minister’s name.
“I never saw a movement that the country’s farmers launched and kept going for a year and a half only for the MSP … I have not heard even a mention of it over the last three Budgets,” Congress’s Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, demanding MSP guarantee to the farmers.
Pratibha Mondal of the Trinamool Congress questioned the smaller allocations for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana. “How does the government justify reducing the allocation…Rs 12,267 crore to Rs. 12,200 crore when actual expenditure in 2024-25 was Rs 14,473 crore and crop damage surged to 94.7 lakh hectares in 2025 reflecting a 400% rise since 2022,” she said.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Opposition-ruled states of playing “politics” by rejecting public welfare schemes simply because they carried the PM’s name. He asked them to desist from politicising public welfare schemes and focus on people’s welfare, while accusing Punjab and West Bengal of depriving their farmers of PM Fasal Beema Yojana benefits.
Chouhan further said the government will soon introduce the New Seed Act and the Pesticide Act for the welfare of farmers and had made an “unprecedented” allocation to agriculture in the Union Budget.
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“They did not work at all on MSP, and they are asking us about MSP … The Opposition is beating their chests in the name of farmers, but they never gave MSP. They did not implement the Swaminathan Committee’s recommendations,” Chouhan said.
He added that the UPA government had purchased produce worth ₹4,75,000 crore at MSP in 10 years, while the NDA government bought grains worth ₹18,98,000 crore.
Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel urged the government not to allow the import of soyabean, dairy products and cattle fodder from abroad, as it would “financially cripple” the farmers involved in these sectors.
