‘Farmers failing to repay loans won’t lose land to banks’

The Rajasthan government has decided to shield farmland up to five acres from attachment by banks in the event of farmers failing to repay loans, law minister Shanti Dhariwal said on Tuesday.

“This provision will be part of the farm bills that the state government is planning to introduce in the upcoming assembly session starting from October 31 to offset the three agriculture-related laws recently enacted by the Centre,” Dhariwal said.

The Congress government in Punjab, the first state to formally bring in legislations to counter the Centre’s farm laws, has limited the land size to 2.5 acres that will be protected against attachment by banks in case of failure to repay loans.

The Punjab legislative assembly passed four bills and adopted a resolution against the Centre’s farm laws. The bills were passed unanimously with support from all parties, barring two BJP MLAs who skipped the session.

The Centre’s laws are the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, (which provides for contract farming, under which farmers will produce crops as per contracts with corporate investors for a mutually agreed remuneration), Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (which gives farmers freedom to sell their produce anywhere), and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 (which removes cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities).

After Punjab, the Congress government in Rajasthan plans to bring in bills to dilute the impact of the Centre’s three farm laws. Rajasthan’s proposed farm bills will include seven crops -- wheat, gram, mustard, moong (lentil), urad (black gram), soyabean and groundnut -- under minimum support price (MSP), unlike just two --wheat and paddy -- in Punjab, Dhariwal said. “To protect the rights of the farmers and provide them benefits, the state government will bring an amendment in section 60 (1) of the Code of Civil Procedures, 1908. The government has decided to include land up to five acres in the non-attachable category. After this amendment, a farmer’s agricultural land up to five acres cannot be attached,” Dhariwal said, adding that the state government will bring in the amendment bill in the coming assembly session.

A senior official familiar with the developments said, “Among other provisions which the state bills will include is that the state government will allow private entities to buy farm produce or enter contract farming, as the Central law envisages, but the purchase from farmers has to be on MSP. There will be penal provision on paying less than MSP.”

He said the farmers will have the right to discontinue the contract after its tenure is over. Commenting on the proposed amendment, Kisan Mahapanchayat president Rampal Jat said, “It is a welcome step in the interest of the farmers.” The BJP has said the Congress does not want the condition of farmers to improve, so is opposed to the laws brought in by the Modi government. BJP state president Satish Poonia had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured farmers that MSPs and mandi system would continue. “The Modi government is committed towards doubling the farmers’ income,” he said.