New Delhi: Amid an ongoing protest against three agricultural laws, a delegation of 29 farmers from Haryana met with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday to extend their support for the new legislation and threatened to organize a protest if repealed. The delegation, led by Guni Prakash, head of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann) Haryana state, presented a “letter of support” to Tomar on agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September and demanded that the government continue with these laws.
“We will also protest if the government repeals the laws. We have delivered a memorandum to all the districts,” Prakash told reporters after the meeting. He also sought to know why the previous administration did not implement the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations until 2014.
“Everyone has the right to protest. They have, so do we. We are in favor of the three laws, but this protest is led by leftists and violent people,” he said. Stating that the ongoing farmer agitation is no longer a peasant movement, the BKU leader said: “It has taken on a political color. Farmers will get real freedom through these three laws.” This was the second group of farmers from Haryana who met with Tomar and extended their support for the agricultural laws. The first group had met with the minister on December 7.
No progress has been made during the six rounds of talks between the Center and the agitator farmers thus far, as the farmers have adhered to their demand for repeal of the laws, despite the government sending them a draft of the laws. proposal to amend specific issues without abolishing. laws.
The three laws have been presented by the government as important reforms in the agricultural sector that will eliminate intermediaries and allow farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country. However, protesting farmers have expressed fear that the new laws would pave the way to remove the Minimum Livelihood Price (MSP) safety cushion and eliminate mandis (wholesale markets), leaving them at the mercy of large corporations.
The Center has maintained that the MSP and the mandi system would continue and would prefer to improve and strengthen even more.
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