Farmers Movement Archive

Farm laws:Anurag Thakur accuses Congress of misguiding, instigating farmers

Minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Thakur, while addressing a virtual press conference held at BJP district headquarters near the clock tower on Friday, accused the Congress party of ‘misguiding’ the farmers over the new farm laws just to ‘woo them’ before 2022 state legislative elections. Thakur challenged chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to an open debate on which party had worked for the betterment of farmers. However, the minister evaded questions related to why no union minister attended the meeting with farmer organisations held on October 14 in New Delhi and why the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had quit the NDA over the laws if they are not anti-farmer, as alleged by the farmer associations. Taking a dig at former president of Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi, Thakur said that he was doing politics by sitting in tractors in Punjab but was not present in the Lok Sabha when the bills were presented.He stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government was working to double the income of the farmers by allowing them to sell their crops to anyone outside the mandis, but Congress wants to restrict them to mandis only for its benefit. Thakur said that Bharatiya Janata Party had renamed the ministry of agriculture to ministry for agriculture and farmers’ welfare and the budget had been increased from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 1.34 lakh crore. This shows the concern of the Modi government towards the farming sector, he added.Further, the minister said that the farmers were being instigated by the Congress in the state and clarified that the land of farmers would not be grabbed by the corporate houses and the minimum support price (MSP) for the crops wouldn’t be done away with. When questioned about farmers’ concern about no mention of MSP in the laws, Thakur replied that it was an administrative process and would not be abolished. The minister said that the number of crops purchased by the central agencies and thminimum support price had increased in the past and different schemes had been initiated by the Bharatiya Janata Party including, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, for the benefit of the farmers. He stated that around Rs 95,000 crores was allocated for farmers during the pandemic by the BJP government. CHUGH SLAMS BITTUMeanwhile, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh slammed member of parliament (MP) Ravneet Singh Bittu for allegedly disturbing the peace of the state. Chugh said that Bittu had lost his grandfather former chief minister Beant Singh due to terrorism in the state therefore, he should know better than to disturb the peace of the state again.

Hindustan Times

16-10-2020

City