Despite that Govt willing to amend laws, says Union Agriculture Minister
As the Opposition mounted pressure on the Centre in Parliament to repeal the three farm laws, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said the Government is willing to amend them. At the same time he insisted there were no discrepancies in the laws.
Making this assertion in the Rajya Sabha, he also said the various kisan unions now agitating at the borders of the national Capital were unable, so far, to pinpoint any lacuna in the laws during the 11 rounds of talks.
Insisting that the new laws were meant to increase the income of the farmers and improve their standard of living, in an obvious reference to Punjab, Tomar said farmers from one State were “misled and misinformed”.
He said while the Contract Act now practised in Punjab provided for arresting the defaulting farmers besides imposing a penalty of Rs 5 lakh, the Central law gave protection to them. Elaborating upon this, the Minister said a farmer at any time can opt out of the Central Contract Act, but the corporate or business entity with whom the contract was arrived at cannot do so.
Highlighting these points while participating in a discussion on the President’s address, Tomar reiterated the Government’s assurance for continuing talks to resolve the issue. He also said if the Government wanted to make any changes in these laws, it didn’t mean there was any problem with them. “I made it clear that if Govt was ready to make amendments, it did not mean there was any problem in farm laws,” he said.
The Minister also said there was misinformation spread among the farmers that their lands will be taken if the laws were implemented. “Let me know if there is a single provision in contract farming law which allows any trader to snatch away the land of any farmer,” he said.
Tomar informed the House that the Government was committed to welfare of farmers and to the continuation of the mandi system of procurement of crops on minimum support price (MSP) based mechanism.
The laws give farmers alternatives to sell their produce outside mandis, and unlike the State Government notified market places, such sale would not attract any tax.
“The agitation should have been against the tax levied (by state government) on sale made in mandis but strangely the protests are against freeing of the system from such taxes,” Tomar said.
Taking a dig at the Opposition for terming the legislations as “black laws,” he said during the last two months of talks with the farmers not even a single black point was brought out by the farmers representatives.
With regard to the MSP which has been the key issue of the farmers’ movement, the Minister said it was being provided at 50 per cent more than the production cost and the Centre ensured that requisite investment reaches the agriculture sector.
Tomar reiterated the PM is committed towards the welfare of farmers and efforts were on to double their income and also increase the contribution of agriculture towards the country’s GDP rapidly. Under this year’s Union Budget, the Centre had allocated an amount of Rs 2.83 lakh crore for agriculture with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman adding that the MSP regime underwent a change to assure price to farmers that is at least 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities.
Earlier, several Opposition members urged the Prime Minister to take the initiative to break the logjam and reach out to the farmers. Congress leaders Partap Singh Bajwa and Anand Sharma said it the right time for Modi to show statesmanship and large heartedness by withdrawing the laws.
Bajwa said it was inhuman to cut off electricity and water supply to the sites where the farmers were agitating at the borders. Referring to the 1971 war with Pakistan, he said more than 93,000 Pakistani prisoners o war (POW) were given food and living facilities by India. However, in the present instance, putting up barricades resembled concentration camps, the Congress leader said. His party colleague Mallikarjun Kharge said the UPA regime paid more MSP to the farmers as compared to the NDA rule.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (kali Dal) urged the Prime Minister to opt for a “respectful way” to approach the agitating farmers and end the impasse.
Incidentally, the marathon 15-hour discussion in the Upper house on Motion of Thanks to Presidents Address that lasted over three days concluded as scheduled on Friday. This is one of the longest such debates with high participation of members. It included 18 members from BJP, five of Congress and 27 from other parties participated in the marathon debate. The Prime Minister is likely to reply on Monday after Question Hour.
Saturday, 06 February 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
