Opp Congress in Meghalaya demands withdrawal of 3 Farmers’ Bills

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 28, 2020

The opposition Congress has sought the immediate withdrawal and repeal of the three Farmers’ Bills passed by the Central government recently in both Houses of the Parliament.

After holding a protest meeting on Monday, the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) also handed over a memorandum addressed to the President Ram Nath Kovind to the Raj Bhavan, Shillong for communication to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“The Anndata farmer and labourers will never forget the conspiracy of the Modi Government to convert ‘the disaster confronting the farmers’ into an ‘opportunity for the capitalists’ under the garb of pandemic. We urge upon your good self to intervene and ensure that these bills are withdrawn and repealed forthwith,” MPCC said in the memorandum.

The three Bills include – The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance Farm Services, Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

It said the Modi government has unleashed a diabolical conspiracy against India’s farmers and farming sector.

“The Union BJP government is conspiring to defeat the ‘Green Revolution’ by bringing in the captioned anti-farmer bills. This a well-designed conspiracy to destroy the ‘Anndata’ farmer and the agriculture at the altar of a handful of crony capitalists,” the MPCC said.

Stating that 62 crores farmers and farm laborers are agitating across the country, the party said over 250 farmer’s organizations are sitting in Dharna, on hunger strikes and are demonstrating across the length and breadth of India.

“Drunk with power and determined to serve the crony capitalist friends, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to be blind to the agony of the farmers and suppress every voice of protest. Modi government is dictatorially subverting the voice of farmers’ representatives inside the Parliament and has unleashed a draconian ‘Lathi-Danda Regime’ on the protesting farming community,” it alleged.

The MPCC also stated that in these Bills, there is neither any provision for the protection of labourers rights nor for the protection of the rights of the persons, who are engaged in agriculture taking land on rent or on produce sharing basis adding it seems that they have been left to fend for themselves.

It also added that the three Bills are the direct attack on the federal structure of the country. Agriculture and Mandis come under the purview of the state governments under the 7^th Schedule of the Constitution, but the Modi government didn’t consider it worthwhile to take the state governments in confidence on this issue.

“Protection and incentivizing agriculture has been naturally the subject under the domain of the states, but, they were not consulted at all. On the contrary, market fees and rural development funds levied for the development of villages and agriculture was done away unilaterally, which is a flagrant transgression of constitutional provisions,” it further stated.