Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh today warned that the enactment of the Centre’s farm sector legislations would lead to resentment and unrest in the border state, even as he declared that no cases would be registered against farmers protesting against these three controversial agriculture sector legislations.
The Punjab CM led a delegation of the ruling Congress party to submit a memorandum to Governor VP Singh Badnore, seeking his intervention for non-pursuance of the agriculture Bills by the Centre in Parliament.
Advertisement
The CM told the Governor that the Congress party felt that any move to tinker with the present system of procurement of farmers’ produce and that too in the midst of the nationwide Covid crisis, might deepen social unrest among farmers of Punjab.
“It may not be conducive for peace and development of the region, which faces serious challenges of public order due to a live international border,” Capt Amarinder said.
Pointing to Pakistan’s bid to disturb the state’s peace and stability through narco-terror and other anti-India acts, the CM later told reporters that these “anti-farmer legislations” would lead to a rise in people’s anger. “Why are we playing into the hands of Pakistan?” he asked.
“These three controversial farm sector Bills, one of which has already been passed in the Lok Sabha yesterday, are against national interest, and particularly detrimental to Punjab, where the majority of farmers tilled less than five acres of land and would be the worst hit,” warned Capt Amarinder.
Hoping that the Centre will back out of pursuing the remaining two Bills and not get them passed in Parliament, he said the Centre had failed to take the interest of the farmers into account in bringing these Ordinances and instead took a stand in favour of corporate houses.
The CM said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi thrice on the issue, but had not received any response so far.
The enactment of the remaining two Bills would ruin Punjab, he said. “If Minimum Support Price (MSP) ends, which is what the Centre seems to be moving towards, the agriculture sector will be ruined in Punjab and across the country,” he added.
Attacking the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a BJP ally, over its “U-turns” on the issue, the Punjab CM said all except the SAD and the BJP were on board at the all-party meeting he had convened on the issue. “We passed a resolution in the state Assembly, we talked to all political parties and farmer unions…and all were on board except the Akalis, who are now pretending to be opposed to the Ordinances,” he said.
The Congress delegation urged the Governor to recommend to the Union government not to pursue the Bills — The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 — introduced in the Lok Sabha to replace the three Ordinances.
