Punjab farmer representatives met today with trade union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal
New Delhi:
Punjab farmers protesting the three controversial farm laws passed by the center in early September – laws that have been criticized as “anti-farmer” – met with union ministers Piyush Goyal and Narendra Singh Tomar today and presented a lengthy list of demands.
In addition to the immediate withdrawal of farm laws, farmers said punishments for burning agricultural waste, linked to deeply unhealthy spikes in air pollution in Delhi and surrounding areas, should be canceled and farmers accused of jailing them for this should be canceled. be released.
These punishments include a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore.
Other demands made by representatives of the state’s farmers’ unions include the abandonment of cases related to stubble burning and the repeal of an amendment to the Electricity Bill, which promotes the privatization of the sector and the interruption of the free supply. for farmers.
“We have made a demand in front of the Minister of Agriculture (Narendra Singh Tomar) and the Minister of Railways (Piyush Goyal) that the three laws related to agricultural reform be withdrawn because through this business control will become very strong”, Sukhdarshan Singh Natt the leader of the Punjab Kisan Union, told NDTV.
Farmers also called for the immediate restoration of freight train services across the state.
The Railways had stopped all passenger and freight trains in Punjab after vociferous protests by farmers saw roads and railways blocked at more than two dozen locations across the state. Today the representative of the farmers said that all the tracks had been vacated.
The blockade caused losses in the state economy of Rs 22 billion, Minister Sunder Sham Arora told the PTI news agency. The railways have suffered an estimated loss of 1,200 million rupees.
The peasants said their protests would continue if the center did not accept the demands. The leaders of the farmers’ union will now meet in Chandigarh on November 18 to define their future strategy. The protest scheduled for Nov. 26 in Delhi will go as planned, for now, union leaders added.
The set of three farm laws, passed by parliament after shocking chaotic scenes, has faced protests across the country.
Aside from fears that it will eliminate MSPs (a source of credit in tough times like droughts and poor harvests), critics say the laws leave small and marginal farmers at the mercy of private companies and actors.
The government says that by removing barriers to interstate and intrastate trade in agricultural and agricultural products, it is empowering farmers to sell their products at the markets and prices of their choice.
Last month, Punjab became the first state to formally reject and counter agricultural laws; the Assembly passed three bills, each of which is designed to counter one of the laws of the center.
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