Former finance and economic affairs secretary of India, Subhash Garg, tells The Wire's founding editor M.K. Venu that the prime minister, Narendra Modi, formally proposed a minimum support price for 23 crops in 2019 but lost the will to implement it.

Garg also called for an audit enquiry, an investigation into excess money given out under the scheme of PM Kisan unveiled by Modi in 2019. "Disbursal under the scheme was officially for 12 crore farmers," according to Garg, a number which he disputed as he added that there are "only 8 crore farmers in India".

Eventually, the government came to Garg's figure, leading to the question as to what happened to the phantom farmers who had apparently received PM Kisan payments.

The auditor general should find out what the excess was and who was the beneficiary of it, he said. This is a serious issue and must be investigated, Garg added.

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