Farmers Movement Archive

Opposition misleading farmers on agriculture laws, alleges Piyush Goyal

JAIPUR: Union minister of commerce and industries Piyush Goyal on Thursday said a directionless and issueless opposition is trying to mislead farmers on the new agri laws. “The opposition is directionless and has no issue, so they are trying to mislead farmers. However, they cannot succeed beyond a limited area,” Goyal said at a press conference here. He was here as part of BJP’s offensive against the opposition to address the issues related to farm laws and hold discussions with various stakeholders. President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave assent to the three contentious bills — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020. Goyal claimed that empowering farmers has been the priority of the Narendra Modi government, which believes that if the farmer is empowered, the country will become stronger. He said that the Centre has been working tirelessly for six consecutive years to bring changes in the lives of farmers by increasing production and fetch right price for their produce. Goyal said the farmers have been bogged down for years and the Centre has taken transformative steps to ensure that the farmers get rid of them. “Now, the farmer is free to sell his products to anyone and anywhere. Neither have we abolished the mandis nor the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Market Committee. While maintaining the system, the farmer can sell the product anywhere he wishes,” Goyal said. On the issue of minimum support price, Goyal said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MSP payments to farmers in the last six years almost doubled compared to the tenure of the UPA government. Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Kailash Chaudhary were also present on the occasion.

The Times of India

2020-10-01

Jaipur