Amid stiff protest from the Opposition, which accused the Centre of “encroaching” on State subjects, the Government on Monday introduced bills on price assurance to farmers and regulation of co-operative banks by RBI in the Lok Sabha.
Defending the two bills on the farm sector, Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said they will help the farmers get a remunerative price for their produce as well as private investments and technology. Responding to the charges of Opposition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the regulation bill is intended to protect the depositors in co-operative banks and nothing to intervene on the state’s acts related to the banks.
Leader of Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and TMC leader Saugata Roy accused the Centre of intervening in Agriculture which is a State Subject. Many Opposition MPs pointed out the ongoing agitations of farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh against the bill. Chowdhury said that these bills are not mentioning about the current system of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and is aimed at business houses’ entry in the agriculture sector. The Opposition has alleged that the Centre brought in the legislations without consulting the states under whose domain 'agriculture' and 'mandis' come.
"Such a law can only be brought by State Governments. Through this bill, the centre will nullify Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) law enacted by various state governments," Chowdhury said.
Agriculture Minister Tomar, while introducing the bills to replace the 'The Farmers' Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 and 'The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, said that almost 86 per cent of farmers have agricultural land of less than two hectares and they are often unable to benefit from minimum support price (MSPs). To specific questions raised by MPs, Minister assured the House that the MSP will stay.
The ordinances seek to provide barrier-free trade for farmers' produce outside notified farm mandis, and empower farmers to enter into farming agreements with private players prior to the production for sale of agri-produce, said Tomar. He said the bill will help the farmers as they are unable to invest much in their farm and do not attract investments from others.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "It is beyond the legislative competence of this house to enact any law on agriculture, which is a domain of the state governments.” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi objected to his remarks that the bills violated the basic tenets of federalism enshrined in India's Constitution.
Responding to volley of objections on the new banking regulation bill which bring co-operative banks under RBI supervision, Sitharaman detailed the bad financial position of many co-operative banks and she said the bill is focusing on protection of the depositors. The new Bill — The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2020 — to protect the depositors of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) and Multi State Cooperative Banks (MSCBs) and not interfering into the State Laws, she said.