Opposition parties misleading and instigating the agitating farmers is strongly condemnable. The three farm laws enacted by the government are aimed at improving the lot of farmers and in no way do these laws harm the interests of farmers. The State’s Urban Development minister Madan Kaushik said this while addressing the media at the BJP State office here on Sunday.
The minister said that through these farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has actually freed the farmers from the restrictions imposed for many years on them when it came to the sale of their produce.The government has passed the three farm bills to make the farmers self reliant, empowered and to increase their income in this era of globalisation. However, it is unfortunate that opposition parties are working to mislead the hard working farmers. Kaushik said, “The Congress and its allies were in favour of these very reforms before 2014. They had made statements in favour of these reforms in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. However, it is unfortunate that today they have made a u-turn and are opposing the very laws they had earlier favoured. Lies are being spread about these laws like the one about farmers facing the threat of losing their land. The reforms will enable contracts between the farmers and buyers but there will be no change in the ownership of the land. The farmer will be free to cancel a contract but if the buyer cancels the contract, he will have to pay compensation to the farmer. The Prime Minister and Agriculture minister have repeatedly assured that the MSP will continue and that the farmers will be able to sell their produce wherever they wish with earlier restrictions on them being removed.”
He stressed that citizens have the right to protest peacefully in a democracy but strongly condemned attempts by opposition parties to mislead the farmers in a manner that actually hurts their interests.
Kaushik further pointed out that between 2013-14 and 2019-20 the government had affected a six-fold increase in the budget of the Agriculture ministry. About 10.60 crore farmers have benefitted so far from the PM Kisan Yojana with more than Rs 95,000 crore having been spent under it. He said, “Farmers of Uttarakhand recently met the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and appreciated the farm laws. Leaving aside a couple of states, the farmers in the rest of the states are standing with the government in support of the farm laws.In order to clarify the provisions of the farm laws, we will hold Press conferences in every district. Additionally, we will also explain the laws clearly to groups of farmers across the state while observing the Covid guidelines,” he said.
BJP State vice president Devendra Bhasin, media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan and other office bearers of the party were also present in the press conference.
Monday, 14 December 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
