Over a year after Punjab’s all the political parties, except the BJP, came together to “unanimously” pass a resolution and four Bills to counter the Centre’s controversial farm laws, Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Thursday once again passed a resolution against the contentious legislations during the special session.
The resolution, demanding “enactment of a special legislation” in the Parliament, which should safeguard the interests of marginal and small farmers with a view “to save them from the imminent exploitation by the corporate sharks”, was unanimously passed by the House after witnessing a debate marred by unruly scenes following “objectionable” remarks by the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi against Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Bikram Singh Majithia. During the hour-long debate, which saw four adjournments totalling an hour, Punjab Congress president and MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Leader of Opposition and AAP MLA Harpal Singh Cheema accused the Akalis of supporting the three farm laws till the farmers’ agitation gathered pace.
Lashing out at the SAD for the three contentious laws, Sidhu said that the beginning was made by the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal by notifying the Contract Farming Act, 2013. Terming the 2013 Act “anti-farmer”, Sidhu sought its abolition.
Also accusing the SAD of supporting the farm laws, Cheema stated that even after these laws were framed, Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and the former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal supported the laws. “They snapped ties with the BJP only when the farmers were opposed to the laws and started the protest,” he added. Notably, the farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at Delhi borders for a year now against the three farm laws — namely the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Even as the protests were started in Punjab much before, the epicentre of protest was shifted to Delhi borders on November 26. Despite holding several rounds of talks, the deadlock between the farmers’ leaders and the Central Government continues.
Earlier, the state’s Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Randeep Singh Nabha moved the resolution terming the contentious laws as an “attack on the federal fabric of the nation”. The resolution condemned the three farm laws and demanded an immediate repeal of the same for safeguarding the peasantry.
The resolution pointed that at the time of the passage of the contentious bills in Rajya Sabha, the opposition’s demand for division by count was not accepted.“The entry 33 of the concurrent list relates to trade and commerce and agriculture is neither trade nor commerce. The farmer is neither a trader nor is he engaged in commercial activity.
They (farmers) are simply cultivators, growers or producers, who bring their produce in APMC market for selling it, either at MSP or at a price dictated by the trader,” it added.
The House deplored the act of the Union Government of “misleading” the Parliament by wrongfully interpreting the term foodstuff in Entry 33 (b) of the concurrent list to be the same as agriculture stuff (agricultural produce) and therefore “made a questionable yet dishonest attempt to achieve indirectly what it could not do directly”, stated the resolution.
The resolution reminded the Centre that APMC Acts have constitutional validity and sanction. “These are State laws enacted under the presumption that agriculture and agricultural marketing is a State subject.
The regulated Mandis established under APMC Acts have a legal foundation, infrastructure and a well-defined mechanism of documenting each and every purchase done by a trader or a government procurement agency.
On the other hand the unregulated markets are akin to spurious trade centers without any infrastructure, without any institutional support and without any accountability,” it added. Punjab Vidhan Sabha, through the resolution, strongly deprecated and condemned the Centre’s efforts aimed at systematic dismantling of farmer friendly regulated mandis (APMC Mandis) and replacing them with trader friendly unregulated mandis.
“The Punjab Vidhan Sabha feels concerned at the unfair concessions extended to the traders and corporations of allowing purchases from unregulated markets without paying market fee, rural development fee etc. and thus providing unfair advantage to unregulated markets vis-Ã -vis regulated mandis.
This will eventually lead to shifting of trade from the APMC mandis to the private mandis apart from causing fiscal loss to the State Government and adversely affecting rural development,” it added.
The resolution reminded the Centre that 86 percent of the farmers have meager land holdings who along with other rural work force like carpenter, weaver, mason and unskilled labourers form the backbone of rural economy. Union Government through these contentious laws is paving the way to dispossess them of their lands and avocations and place them at the mercy of corporate, it added.
Demanding enactment of a special legislation in the Parliament, the resolution stated that said law should protect farmers from their “imminent exploitation by the corporate sharks” who during the harvesting season may procure the produce at a price lower than MSP, store it and then sell it to the consumers at higher prices.
“The suggested special legislation should provide a legal guarantee to farmers that their produce will not be procured at a price less than MSP and that the procurement or purchase of farm produce at a price below MSP will be a criminal offence,” it stated.The resolution demanded that the procurement at MSP should be mandatory for all crops and that MSP be calculated taking comprehensive costs into consideration.
SIDHU APPRECIATES CAPT
Speaking during the debate, Sidhu has a word of appreciation for his bête noire and the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for introducing the Termination of Water Treaties Act in 2004 to safeguard Punjab’s interest.
Sidhu also showered praises on Capt Amarinder on the steps he has taken for the farm debt waiver in the State.
“The Minimum Support Price (MSP), Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC), and public distribution system (PDS) were introduced during the Congress Government’s tenures,” he said.