Farmers Movement Archive

Withdraw farm bills, labour laws: Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Lambasting the ruling BJP for farm bills and labour laws, Samajwadi Party (SP) workers held demonstrations across the state on Friday and submitted memorandum to district magistrates. They demanded withdrawal of the farm bills as well as labour laws which empower employers to sack labourers from the service without seeking the government's nod. National president of SP and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav joined party workers in the protest through virtual 'chaupals'. Attacking the ruling BJP at the Centre and in UP, he said why the government has failed to convince farmers and labourers that the two bills are for their betterment. The government wants to distract farmers on the issue of MSP for the current crop only to take control of the agricultural land of small and medium farmers, the former UP chief minister said. Till now the labour laws made it mandatory for any industry, employing over 100 labourers, to seek permission of the government before sacking any worker from the service. Now, a factory with over 300 labourers is not required to seek government permission to sack anybody. Labourers will not be able to resist any such move, Akhilesh added. The farm bills and labour laws have been framed only to benefit multinational companies and some select corporate houses of the country at the cost of poor farmers and labourers. “They have introduced anti-farmer and anti-labourer bills to please companies which fund the rulingBJP,” Akhilesh said, responding to demands of farmers from Ghazipur while interacting with them through virtual 'chuapal'.

The Times of India

2020-09-26

Lucknow