Farmers’ protest: Captain Amarinder Singh called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw agricultural laws
Chandigarh:
Punjab’s chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, has criticized as fake news and “highly irresponsible” media reports that Punjab has already implemented the three new agricultural laws, which some farmers have been protesting for almost two months.
“The statement by Food Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu had been mischievously twisted by a newspaper, and others picked it up,” Singh said today.
The prime minister, calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the agricultural laws, noted that Punjab was the first state to oppose the agricultural laws and even started the process to amend state bills to deny the “dangerous impact on agriculture “of the new laws. .
“The governor should have sent our bills to the president for approval, which he has not done,” Singh said.
He also alleged that his rival, the Aam Aadmi party, has been spreading misinformation about the farmers’ protest.
“We will do everything possible to help farmers and their families, for whom the state government had already set up two helplines that they could contact in case of emergency,” said the chief minister. “The farmers have made their position very clear: that the laws should be repealed. It is the job of the Indian government to listen to them.
Thousands of farmers are entrenched on the road on the Delhi-Haryana border. Several rounds of talks with the government have not made much progress. Farmers want to be assured that the minimum support price (MSP) will not be eliminated, in addition to the complete withdrawal of new laws that allow farmers to avoid intermediaries and sell to anyone, which they say opens the doors to companies to exploit them.
The government has agreed to comply with the new laws clause by clause and has ensured the protection of the MSP, in addition to protection against exploitation by companies. However, the farmers have refused nothing less than the complete withdrawal of the law.
At the last meeting on January 5, peasant leaders said that Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar told them to go to the Supreme Court, but that there is no way the center can withdraw the laws. Farmers leaders and ministers will meet next Friday.
Farmers have threatened to hold a demonstration on Republic Day, January 26, if their demands are not met.
Last month, the Supreme Court had ordered a special committee to be formed, insisting that the center’s negotiations had failed. “Their negotiation will fail again because they (farmers) will not agree,” said the bank headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.
.
