Amidst vociferous protest by the farmers and immense political compulsions, Punjab legislators meet on Monday to deliberate upon possibilities of axing the Centre’s three farm laws. The special one-day Vidhan Sabha session, extended by a day, is expected to see the enactment of an Act to negate the controversial legislations.
In fact, to hold the second session with the dark clouds of COVID-19 still looming large, the State Government has thrown to the wind all cautions by not making the ‘coronavirus-negative report’ mandatory for the legislators reportedly to ensure full participation. However, the COVID-19 negative report is mandatory for all the employees and officers, besides media to attend the session.
What is more! A sense of uncertainty continues to shroud the opposition parties and also the farmers’ organizations ahead the two-day day assembly session. Even a day before the commencement of the special session, the political parties and farm bodies are unaware of the State Government’s proposed move.
The opposition parties — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — on Sunday demanded to make public the proposed law or move of the State Government to counter the Centre’s controversial laws.
“With less than 24 hours left, we are not even aware of what will happen in the session tomorrow. , ” said SAD MLA Bikram Singh Majithia, adding that the move is nothing to do with the national security that you are keeping it “top secret” and hiding from us all.
“The new law will be passed if you have the papers, you know what is in it,” he said adding that there will be no loss to Punjabis “if you tell us what is the agenda for session tomorrow”.
SAD has also written to the Speaker Rana KP Singh pointing that no legislator is in the know what would be the business for the session on Monday.
Similarly, AAP has also asked the Speaker to initiate strict action against the Government officials or Ministers behind concealing the details of the agenda and not sharing it with the Opposition within the stipulated period before the commencement of the session under the rules.
AAP MLA and the Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema alleged that neither the State Government nor the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat had yet informed the principal opposition party about the detailed agenda to be put across in the Vidhan Sabha “which smacked of double standards of the government”, while demanding that all details of the proposed agenda, to be brought in to nullify the draconian laws, be made known to the Opposition.
The session, which is to be held for a day on October 19 as per earlier schedule, has been extended for another day to held the detailed discussion. The decision will be formally taken at the Business Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for Monday.
It has been learnt that the day has been extended to hold a thorough debate on the proposed Bill that the Congress Government is planning to passed in the assembly to counteract the controversial farm laws that the Parliament had passed the previous month.
The three central laws — The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 — is under attack of the farmers across the country besides several political parties.
However, the agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana have emerged as the epicenter of the protests against the new laws.
Farmers and civil rights organizations have been holding protests against the three laws for over a month now. Of particular concern was ‘The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act’ which the farmers see as a step to dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) system.
They have expressed apprehension that the new laws will pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates. Critics say that while the APMC system could do with some reforms, the laws could weaken the system and leave farmers open to exploitation.
The Centre, however, has maintained that the new laws will raise farmers' income, free them from the clutches of middlemen and usher in new technology in farming.
NO COVID-NEGATIVE REPORT MANDATORY FOR MLAs
Contrary to the previous special Vidhan Sabha session, the Speaker has not made the ‘COVID-19 negative report’ mandatory for the legislators this time.
Exempting the MLAs from undergoing the COVID-19 test, the Vidhan Sabha secretariat has only “advised” them to get themselves tested for the contagion.
During the previous one day special session on August 28, the Speaker Rana KP Singh has made coronavirus negative test report mandatory for all the Ministers, MLAs, officers and employees to attend the session.
However, this time, the MLAs have been exempted to undergo the test, while making the same mandatory for all the officers, employees and even the media persons.
It has been learnt that the Government wanted the full participation of the members to pass the proposed law with thumping majority, to send across a strong message to the Central Government.
Notably, a total of 30 lawmakers, nearly 25 per cent of the total strength of 117, were tested positive for the novel coronavirus ahead the session. These included four Cabinet Ministers.
In fact, two more MLAs tested positive on the day of the session.
In all, 52 members had attended the proceedings — 42 from the Congress, six from AAP, two each from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) — that were held under strict COVID protocols.
To ensure social distancing in the House, one member per bench will be allowed to sit just like previous session. For the purpose, some additional benches have also been kept in the House to accommodate all the members. In the 117-member House, there are a total 105 benches.
Visitors and journalists will not be allowed inside the Assembly.
In fact, the media would be covering the session from a distance of 1.5 kms at Punjab Bhawan after the Speaker notified Punjab Bhawan, in Sector 3, as an extended precinct of the House for media coverage of the session.