Farmers Movement Archive

Rajasthan: Stormy assembly session likely today over farm laws

JAIPUR: The assembly session beginning on Saturday is likely to be heated as the BJP will oppose the legislation that seeks to override the recently-passed farm laws by the Centre. The session has been convened to counter three farm laws passed by the Parliament allowing private players to purchase farm produce directly from the farmers instead of agriculture markets. The BJP claimed that the Centre’s laws will liberate the farmers from middlemen and allow them to sell their produce at competitive prices. The Congress on the other hand has been demanding to incorporate a provision to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for farmers and prevent private players from purchasing farm produce below MSP. But the Centre had rejected the demand of Congress. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had then asked party ruled states to pass legislations to override the Centre’s farm laws. The direction came as farmers took to streets to protest the laws passed by the Centre fearing that the new legislation would do away with the MSP system. The state government also plans to have a provision that makes sale and purchase of farm produce below MSP punishable with fine and imprisonment as was done by Punjab recently. The Congress-ruled states are also going a step further and plan to bring an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure to make the land of small farmers with less than five acres immune from attachment over breach of agreement or by decree. The BJP will find it difficult to oppose this legislation. Another legislation in the pipeline is to make wearing masks mandatory in public places. Rajasthan is the first in the country going to introduce such a provision as the vaccine for Covid-19 is still a far cry and wearing masks has been found to be effective in preventing the pandemic. Speaker C P Joshi on Friday reviewed the arrangement for the session with officials of the assembly.

The Times of India

2020-10-31

Jaipur