This comes two days prior to farmers unions are scheduled to hold talks with the Centre on January 4.
Thousands of farmers, primarily from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at a variety of borders of the national capital for more than a month against these 3 new laws.
The government has presented these laws as big agriculture reforms aimed at assisting farmers and rising their earnings, but the protesting unions worry that the new legislations have left them at the mercy of large corporates by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Kailash Chaudhary mentioned he was confident that a resolution will be reached in the subsequent round of talks with farmers.
“I am confident that in the next round of talks with farmers, a solution will be reached and ongoing protest will come to an end. Three farm bills are in favour of farmers. They used to demand to get rid of middleman and sell their produce at rate of their choice,” Chaudhary, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, mentioned.
“Regarding contract farming, in the new bill, there can’t be an investigation against farmer even if he is at fault. It also states there won’t be any agreement regarding land of farmer. The bill is favourable for farmers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants them to become ‘atmanirbhar’,” Chaudhary added.
The government has presented these laws as big agriculture reforms aimed at assisting farmers and rising their earnings, but the protesting unions worry that the new legislations have left them at the mercy of large corporates by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
After the talks among 3 union ministers and a 41-member representative group of thousands of farmers protesting on Delhi borders on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar mentioned at least 50 per cent resolution has been reached with mutual agreement on two out of 4 products on the agenda and discussions would continue on the remaining two on January 4 at 2 PM.
Farmer leaders mentioned the claim that the government has accepted 50% of the demands is a “plain lie”.
Saturday marked the 38th day of the farmers’ protest against the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Production and Facilitation) Act, 2020 Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020. The farmers are demanding withdrawal of all the 3 laws, whilst the government has agreed to amend the laws as per the recommendations of the farmers. The farmers will be taking up the situation throughout the 6th round of talks with the government.