Farmers Movement Archive

Yadav to hold rallies against farm bills in south Haryana

Swaraj India convener Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday said that he would be starting a ‘Kisan Bachao Yatra’ in south Haryana from Thursday to create awareness among farmers in the region about the issues surrounding the three farm bills that were recently passed.“The minimum support price (MSP) is an essential tool for helping the farmers, but this government is dismantling this system through legislation. We asked the government to discuss these issues with farmers but they pushed these bills without any thought,” said Yadav while addressing media persons in Gurugram.He said that he would tour agricultural produce markets or mandis in Tauru, Farruknagar, Pataudi, Ateii, Bhiwani, neighbouring areas and finally, Sirsa, where farmers are holding a permanent protest against these bills.He also said that farmers across the country were against the bills and although the government has said it that would liberate the farm sector, no farmers’ organisation was consulted on this.“The report of Swaminathan Commission has not been implemented and statements issued by the government are just to mislead the farmers,” he said, adding that farmers in Haryana and Punjab will have to fight for their rights as they benefitted largely due to the MSP.A joint association of 140 farmers’ organisations from across the country will continue these protests across the country till these laws are rolled back, he said.Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, refuted these allegations and said that neither MSP system nor mandis were going to be changed in any manner. “The MSP system will continue and there is no change in mandis. The only change is that farmers will have the freedom to sell the produce across the country and will have different options,” said Raman Malik, BJP spokesperson.

Hindustan Times

14-10-2020

Gurugram