TAD NewsDesk, Rajasthan: The Punjab government passed the much awaited 3 Bills to oppose the Centre’s Farm Laws. This step has been anticipated since the announcement by Congress national general secretary (organisation), K.C. Venugopal, about the possibility of these Bills to be passed in an emergency assembly meeting.
This initiative has followed the Punjab government’s 4 Bills passed to oppose the Centre’s Farm Laws.
Rajasthan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal has introduced the three Bills as:
- Code of Procedure (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020
- The Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020
- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020
The issues and concerns of the farmers have been focused and the government has tried to make provisions to protect their interest. Some of the issues included in the Bill were:
- Sale or purchase of a crop under the farming agreement on a price equal or greater than minimum support price
- Imprisonment of three to seven years for harassment of farmers
In the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, a clause states,
“Provided further that no Farming Agreement for the sale or purchase of a crop shall be valid unless the price paid for such agricultural produce is equal to, or greater than, the prevailing Minimum Support Prices, announced by the Central Government for that crop.”
The statement of the Bill also added:
“There has been extraordinary outrage amongst the farmers, farm labourers and all others engaged in incidental and ancillary agricultural activities. Since the direct consequences of the Central Act would be to nullify the minimum support price mechanism that has stood the test of time and introduce several other infirmities and distortions operating to the grave detriment and prejudice of agriculture and the communities associated with it.”
The Centre has been continuously asserting that these new bills would be beneficial for the farmers in and would bring them no harm. But the non-BJP led governments holds a different opinion. Till now, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan has passed amendment against the “anti-farmer laws” as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot called the three laws passed recently by the government.
Source: The Wire
