Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav has once again taken many important decisions for public welfare. Under his chairmanship, the Cabinet has taken a historic decision to reduce the market fee rate on cotton from 1% to 0.5% to give impetus to agriculture and trade. This will strengthen local ginning mills and increase employment. In the interest of farmers, the general market fee has been increased from Re 1 to Re 1 50 paise. The estimated additional income of Rs 500 crore received as fee will be directly used in the development of Farmer Road Fund and agricultural research.
MP cabinet has approved the proposal of revised total cost of Rs 10,033.62 crore by adding additional cost of Rs 3,092.22 crore to the original cost of Bhopal Metro Rail Project of Rs 6,941.40 crore. The Cabinet has also approved additional funding of Rs 3,532 crore 22 lakh for the project as per accepted industry norms.
Rs 235 crore 63 lakh for IT cadre consultancy services.
This includes additional equity of Rs 995 crore 9 lakh by the Government of India and State Governments and additional subordinate loan of Rs 84 crore 54 lakh for central taxes, additional PTA-Internal loan of Rs 1,620 crore 64 lakh against loan funds from financing agency banks, additional subordinate loan of Rs 138 crore 38 lakh from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for cost of land and rehabilitation and resettlement and additional subordinate loan of Rs 446 crore from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for state taxes. An additional grant of Rs 35 lakh and Rs 246 crore 41 lakh is included for the cost of IDC.
The Cabinet has approved Rs 235 crore 63 lakh for the grant for state IT cadre consultancy services under the Department of Science and Technology and for the continuous operation of the action plan related to information technology for the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031. As per the approval, Rs 180 crore 20 lakh has been approved for the grant scheme for state IT cadre consultancy services. Under the scheme, state level IT cadre has been formed to provide technical consultancy services to various departments, corporations, authorities and projects of the government.
The grant received from the scheme is used for appointment of experts, training, capacity-development and consultancy services as per departmental needs. This scheme is currently a basic requirement of the digital transformation process of governance and in future will also prove to be very useful for strengthening the preparedness of the state in areas like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics, Block Chain Technology and Cyber Security.
55 crore 43 lakh for information technology related action plan
Rs 55 crore 43 lakh has been approved by the Cabinet for the action plan related to information technology. Under the scheme, VBTC Training Center will increase the technical efficiency and administrative efficiency of officers and employees by providing them regular training on IT, e-governance, cyber security and data management subjects. Effective implementation of various IT and e-governance projects will be ensured by providing grants-in-aid to nodal agencies like MPSEDC.
Departmental capacity building and IT awareness will be promoted through workshops and seminars organized at the state, division and district level. Besides, innovations of departments and officers will be encouraged through ‘e-Governance Excellence Award’. Effective implementation of the scheme will help in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a leading state in the field of e-governance.
Approval to increase the rate of market fee on cotton to 0.5%
Keeping in view the need of cotton ginning mills, the Cabinet has approved to reduce the rate of mandi fee on cotton from 1% to 0.5%. There are about 158 cotton ginning mills in the state, whose processing capacity is about 13 lakh metric tons. Due to reduction in the rate of market fee on cotton in the state, ginning mills will be given priority to do business in the state rather than migrating to other neighboring states, which will increase employment and GST collection. The input cost of ginning mills will reduce and their economic feasibility will increase. They will be able to maintain their strong position in the competitive market.
Approval to provide free government guarantee
It was decided by the Cabinet that for the continuation of the existing financial arrangements for borrowing funds from various banks (Scheduled/Nationalized/District Cooperative Central Banks), NABARD, and public financial institutions for the procurement of wheat in the upcoming Rabi marketing year 2026 and subsequent procurement of paddy and coarse grains in the Kharif marketing year 2026-27 and in accordance with the RBI requirement, repayment of food credit limit with high interest rate etc. Keeping the scenarios in mind, MP State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. And Markfed has been approved to provide free government guarantee of Rs 8,600 crore from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027 for repayment of the food grain credit limit of Reserve Bank of India.
The right to reallocate the free government guarantee between MPSCSC and Markfed from time to time has been given to the Food Department of Madhya Pradesh Government. Apart from this, MP State Civil Supply Corporation Ltd. Free government guarantee of Rs 29,500 crore has been provided for the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 (one year). Apart from the amount available from the government guarantee, the remaining amount will be financed from the food grain credit limit provided to the state government by the RBI with higher interest rate.
Decision to increase market fee from Rs 1 to Rs 1.50
The Cabinet has decided to increase the market fee from Re 1 to Rs 1.50. This amount will encourage cold storage, warehouse processing units and logistics facilities in the districts. Out of this fee amount, 50 paise will be used for the welfare of farmers as a part of Marketing Development Fund. The destitute fee will be kept at 20 paise. This increase is likely to generate additional income of approximately Rs 500 crore this year.
This income will be used in Farmer Road Fund and agricultural research and infrastructure development. The share of Kisan Road Fund Rural Road Development Authority will be 20 paise, 10 paise for the basic structures of Kisan Road Fund-Mandis, 12 paise for Cow Promotion and Protection Fund, 2 paise for Chief Minister Farmers Life Welfare Scheme, 1.75 paise for publicity and farmer conference and 4.25 paise will be used for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Infrastructure Development Fund.
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