Farmers Movement Archive

Amarinder meets PM, urges him to repeal three farm laws

New Delhi/Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately initiate steps for the repeal of three controversial farm laws, arguing that the prolonged stir by farmers could have national security implications. The chief minister, who met the PM in Delhi on Wednesday evening, submitted two separate letters, one calling for the immediate review and revocation of the three farm laws passed last year and another asking for legal aid for cultivators. “In my meeting with Prime Minister @narendramodi ji today, have urged upon him for initiating immediate steps to revoke farm laws which have triggered resentment amongst farmers. Have also requested him to amend the relevant law to provide free legal services to farmers,” Singh tweeted after the meeting. The CM, who shares a stormy relationship with longstanding rival and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, met party chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. He also met Union home minister Amit Shah and demanded 25 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) for Punjab and anti-drone gadgets for BSF.Over a dozen farm unions, especially from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting the three laws by sit-in demonstrations outside the Capital. Cultivators say the laws will leave them at the mercy of large corporations and jeopardise their livelihoods. They have also said the new laws would lead to the dismantling of a system of MSP. The government has billed the laws as necessary reforms to modernise India’s farming sector deemed largely unproductive. and has refused to repeal them. Despite 11 rounds of talks -- the last one was held on January 22 – there has been no point of agreement between the government and the farmers. The government offered to freeze the laws for 18 months, a proposal the farmers rejected. At the meeting, Singh said around 400 farmers and farm workers had died in the protest, according to the official statement by the state government after the meeting. He argued that the stir had the potential of posing security threats for Punjab and the country with Pakistan-backed anti-India forceslooking to exploit the farmers’ disgruntlement, according to government press release. He also urged the PM to intervene and redress the farmers’ legitimate concerns. The CM said the continued agitation was not only impacting economic activities in Punjab but also had the potential to affect the state’s social fabric. He further underlined the need to compensate farmers for the management of paddy straw @ Rs.100 per quintal and address the fears of D-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer shortage. In another letter, the CM stressed that due to the fragmentation of landholdings, and persistent disputes with lessees and various market operators and agents, farmers were facing heightened litigation, causing stress on their meagre financial resources. He said that there was a need to reduce the farmer’s ’ financial burden due to litigation and noted that the Central Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 provides free legal aid to certain categories of people, according to government’s official statement.“It is, thus, the need of the hour to amend Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to include farmers and farm workers in the category of persons entitled to free legal services to pursue and defend themselves in the courts to secure their livelihood,” Singh told the PM, according to official press release.

Hindustan Times

11-08-2021

India