Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Capt calls all-party meeting on farm sector ordinances

- HT Correspond­ent letterschd@hindustant­imes.com

CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has called an all-party meeting on June 24 over the issue of three ordinances related to the agricultur­e sector, recently passed by the Centre, state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said on Saturday.

“Views of all the parties will be taken to arrive at the consensus that these ordinances were against the interest of the farming community and we should approach the Centre and the prime minister over this issue,” Jakhar said.

He said farming communitie­s were up against this ‘kala kanoon’ (black law) and they have vehemently opposed these ordinances.

“Under these laws, the efforts are being made to hand over the rights of farmers to the multinatio­nals and big corporates,” he alleged and expressed fear that the Narendra Modi government had decided to “disband” the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism with these ordinances under a “planned move”.

The central government recently passed three ordinances, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitati­on) Ordinance, Farmers (Empowermen­t and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, and the Essential Commoditie­s (Amendment) Ordinance.

The Centre had said these would transform the farm sector and help raise farmers’ income.

However, the Congress government in Punjab had said these ordinances were completely against farmers and would badly hit the agrarian state.

The amendment to the Essential Commoditie­s Act was meant to deregulate food items, including cereals, pulses and onion.

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