Oppn intensifies protests against new farm laws
Tractor set on fire near India Gate in Delhi, Congress workers detained across several states
Farmer groups and political parties on Monday intensified protests against the three farm bills that were signed into law on Sunday by President Ram Nath Kovind, with a tractor being set on fire at India Gate, a high-security zone in the national capital.
Youth Congress workers from Punjab set the tractor ablaze at Rajpath, which connects the India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, even as the police detained five persons for the incident. Deputy police commissioner Eish Singhal said the police doused the fire before the tractor was completely burnt. He said adequate police force has been deployed in the area to avoid a repeat of such an incident.
The tractor was set afire hours before Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh began a sit-in at against the farm bills at freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village of Khatkar Kalan on his birth anniversary. He accused the central government of snatching the rights of states.
“Now you have taken away (right over) the farm sector. Which thing will you leave with states? Will you leave it or not? You have taken away everything (from states). How will we run our states?” Singh said.
The three bills — the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill,
2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Bill, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 — have become acts after President Kovind signed them into law.
Farmers, especially in Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting against the legislation, which the government says will enable them to sell their produce in any market of their choice rather than limit them to governmentrun mandis called agricultural produce marketing committees, or APMCs.
The protestors say the Centre’s farm reforms could pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big companies.
The legislation seeks to give farmers the right to enter into a contract with agribusiness firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters and large retailers for the sale of future farming produce at pre-agreed prices. The amendment to the Essential Commodities Act will remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onion and potato from the list of essential items and do away with the imposition of stock holding limits.
On Monday, Haryana Congress leaders held a protest outside the party’s state headquarters in Chandigarh. A delegation comprising Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and party’s state affairs incharge Vivek Bansal submitted a memorandum on the farm-related laws issue to governor Satyadeo Narain Arya.
Earlier, the procession of party leaders, who were to march towards the Raj Bhavan, was halted by the Chandigarh Police and only six leaders were allowed to proceed to present the memorandum to the governor. Several workers who tried to march were rounded up by the police and taken into preventive custody before being released later.
In Uttar Pradesh, workers of the Congress and the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) staged protests against the new farm laws in Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar Lallu and other party workers were held during their protest, while police personnel with batons stopped members of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party’s students’ wing as they tried to march towards the chief minister’s residence.
The Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee on Monday submitted to governor Kalraj Mishra a memorandum addressed to the President, seeking withdrawal of the agriculture-related new laws. On behalf of the Congress committee, the party’s state president Govind Singh Dotasra and chief minister Ashok Gehlot submitted the memorandum to governor Mishra at the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur.
Nearly 100 Gujarat Congress workers, including state party president Amit Chavda, were detained in Gandhinagar after they too staged a protest against farm bills. “Since the Congress workers had not taken any permission for the rally, we detained them. We will take a decision about their release afterwards,” superintendent of police Mayur Chavda said.
Around 100 protesters were detained as soon as they started walking towards the Raj Bhavan, deputy superintendent of police MK Rana said.
In Karnataka, chief minister BS Yediyurappa expressed his willingness to talk to farmer leaders, as protesters staged demonstrations in several parts of the state during the Karnataka Bandh.
“I want to tell the farmer leaders that conduct the agitation today but later come, sit with us and have a discussion. I am always ready to make changes for the benefit of farmers,” the chief minister told a press conference.
The dawn-to-dusk bandh call was supported by several proKannada and other outfits besides the opposition Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), who had opposed the amendment bills in the assembly. houses has driven maximum number of projects with 377,000 units, followed by 121,000 water conservation and water harvesting works and 92,158 projects of laying fiber optic cables under Bharat Net.
Former rural development secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra is not worried about the slow pace of expenditure. “If you see, for the last few months, the demand for jobs under MGNREGS has dipped. Since a large number of programmes under the this rozgar scheme comes under MGNREGS, the demand under this programme must have slowed down.” “But I think the government must continue with the scheme beyond its stipulated 125 days as more people are expected to demand work after the agricultural season is over,” said Mohapatra.