Farmers Movement Archive

Bhagwant Mann: Punjab govt lying on legislations

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said chief minister Amarinder Singh was playing with farmers’ sentiments by lying about agriculture bills passed by the state assembly to negate the Centre’s anti-farmer laws. Mann said if the bills passed in the specially-convened Punjab assembly session were valid, the Congress government would not have run away from including procurement of cotton crop and other crops at minimum support price (MSP) in the bills brought in. However, the MP’s statement came even as AAP MLAs had earlier supported the four bills brought by the Punjab government. Mann, Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur, said Amarinder was playing hide and seek with farmers in collusion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi by bringing in bills in the Punjab assembly to negate the laws passed by Parliament. He likened the state legislations as a ploy to torpedo the peasant struggle. The AAP leader lamented that the MSPs fixed by the government for cotton and maize were completely flouted in Punjab mandis to force farmers to sell their produce at Rs1,000 per quintal less as against Rs 5,745 and Rs 1,870 per quintal for cotton and maize, respectively. He asked Amarinder to tell farmers of Punjab whether the Punjab vidhan sabha had the legal and constitutional right to go for an amendment in the bills already passed by Parliament. He asked if these laws guaranteed farmers the purchase of wheat and paddy crop at the MSP.

The Times of India

2020-10-23

Chandigarh