AgriculturePolitics prevailed over Farmers’ plight

Politics prevailed over Farmers’ plight

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The Prime Minister's decision of taking back all the three Farm laws is the most unfortunate development ever has in recent times so far the , Socio-Economic reforms. The seemingly prevailed upon the initiative for bettering the farmers' economic and social well-being. It is a retrogressive step by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he chose politics over farmers' plight. Maybe the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh and a few other states have served as the forcing factor for the retreat.  This is quite an unfortunate decision for the farmers of India and the country as a whole.

The much-needed reforms in the agriculture sector in India had been overdue for decades and this setback will relegate the situation further for a long time to come.

More agonising for countrymen is the politics of distortion and perversion deeply rooted among our political system that worries more about grabbing power than serving the national interest.

These farm laws, if understood in the right perspective, had some market freedom to the farmers and for the agriculture produce marketing. The government's retreating over these laws means the old laws will prevail henceforth which were exploiting the farmers so far and those were responsible for their backwardness. The existing farm laws had a lot of restrictions on farmers and agricultural produce were pulled out by almost all weapons like export ban and stock limits.

The opposition parties have been successful in misguiding the farmers and their leaders that the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) and the Minimum Support Price mechanism would go and lands will be taken over by the corporate entities.

Close scrutiny of these laws shows these apprehensions were all false and this publication has been vocal in support of these farm laws by publishing special reports and opinions.

Though we supported these laws, at the same time we held the government responsible for not creating awareness among the farmers well in advance before it opted for these all-important laws first through the Presidential ordinance route and later in the Parliament in a haste.  Government should have reached out to the farmers in an effective way and told them the truth. However, the government did not do its job properly and so the agitation continued for a very long time thus subjecting the people and to huge jeopardy.

Interestingly, even the Specialists Panel appointed by the Apex Court has, in its report too, gone in line with these three farm laws with several corrections and solutions. But instead of using it to solve the impasse, the Prime Minister and BJP chose to backtrack. They just want to win elections and nothing else.

The panel had recommended improvement in the judicial structure that was suggested in the three laws. It had also suggested the amendments in the Essential Commodities Act with regard to invoking its provisions in the wake of a 100% surge in the prices of perishable and 50% non-perishable produce. The farmers had raised issues in this regard and therefore the panel had recommended changes.

The panel had also suggested some improvement in the provision relating to the cancellation of the license of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee. Further, the trade that takes place outside the premises of APMCs, no market cess be charged on that. The recovery of market cess was against providing a level playing field for those who were operating in mandis.

Had the government discussed the three laws instead of imposing these suddenly, the present situation would not have arisen.

Northlines
Northlines
The Northlines is an independent source on the Web for news, facts and figures relating to Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and its neighbourhood.

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