Amarinder meets PM, urges him to repeal three farm laws
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately initiate steps for the repeal of three controversial farm laws, arguing that the prolonged stir by farmers could have national security implications.
The chief minister, who met the PM in Delhi on Wednesday evening, submitted two separate letters, one calling for the immediate review and revocation of the three farm laws passed last year and another asking for legal aid for cultivators.
“In my meeting with Prime Minister @narendramodi ji today, have urged upon him for initiating immediate steps to revoke farm laws which have triggered resentment amongst farmers. Have also requested him to amend the relevant law to provide free legal services to farmers,” Singh tweeted after the meeting.
The CM met party chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. He also met Union home minister Amit Shah and demanded 25 Central Armed Police Force for Punjab and anti-drone gadgets for BSF.
Over a dozen farm unions,
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH:
especially from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting the three laws by sit-in demonstrations outside the Capital. Cultivators say the laws will leave them at the mercy of large corporations and jeopardise their livelihoods. They have also said the new laws would lead to the dismantling of a system of MSP. The government has billed the laws as necessary reforms to modernise India’s farming sector and has refused to repeal them. Despite 11 rounds of talks — the last one was held on January 22 — there has been no point of agreement between the government and the farmers.
At the meeting, Singh said around 400 farmers and farm workers had died in the protest, according to the official statement by the state government after the meeting. He argued that the stir had the potential of posing security threats for Punjab and the country with Pakistanbacked anti-india forces looking to exploit the farmers’ disgruntlement, according to a government press release.
He further underlined the need to compensate farmers for the management of paddy straw at ₹100 per quintal and address the fears of D-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser shortage.
He said that there was a need to reduce the farmers’ financial burden due to litigation, according to the release. “It is, thus, the need of the hour to amend Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to include farmers and farm workers in the category of persons entitled to free legal services...,” Singh told the PM, according to the official press release.