NEW DELHI: Union agriculture minister Narendra Drink Friday said farmers “they are being misled” that their land would be taken away due to the new farm laws.
“Farmers are being misled that others would occupy their land if these laws are implemented. Please let me know if there is a single provision in contract farming law that allows any merchant to take the land from any farmer, “Tomar said during the discussion at Rajya sabha.
Live updates: farmers protest
The union minister also said that farmers are being instigated and that protests against the three laws are “limited to one state.” He also said that farmers’ unions and opposition parties “have failed to point out a single flaw in three new agricultural laws.”
The minister said the government has shown due respect to farmers and has entered into talks with them, but that the government’s willingness to amend “should not be construed” as having flaws in agricultural laws.
“We have not said a single word slandering farmers,” Tomar said of allegations that the government and its supporters have been slandering farmers.
The government, he said, is committed to the well-being of farmers and to the continuation of the mandi system for acquiring crops with a mechanism based on the minimum support price (MSP).
The laws provide farmers with alternatives to sell their produce outside the ‘mandis’ and, unlike markets notified by the state government, such a sale would not generate any taxes.
“The agitation should have been against the tax it charges (by the state government) on the sale made in mandis, but strangely the protests are against the liberation of the system from such taxes,” he said, intervening during the discussion on a motion thanking the chairman for his speech at the joint session of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at the beginning of the budget session.
Farmers have been organizing a sit-in on the Delhi borders since late November last year, claiming that the new farm laws will hurt their interests.
The government has argued that the new laws will benefit farmers and help them double their income.
Eleven rounds of talks have been held between Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the government, led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar, on agricultural laws.
While the government has offered to suspend the implementation of the farm laws for 18 months, the farmers have stood firm in their demand for the total repeal of all three laws.
(With inputs from agencies)
.
