Amid ongoing farmers' protest against three contentious farm laws at Jantar Mantar, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said that if the Opposition is really concerned about farmers, then the Government is ready to discuss the issues in both Houses.
“Why is the Opposition not ready to talk? This shows they just want to be in the media's limelight,” Tomar said outside Parliament.
And in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Tomar said, ‘"Government is always open to discussion with farmers unions and will remain open to discussion with agitating farmers to resolve the issue".
Asserting that the government engaged itself actively and constantly with the agitating farmer unions to end the protests, the minister said that 11 rounds of negotiating talks were held between the government and agitating farmers to resolve the issues. "However, farmer unions never agreed to discuss the farm laws except for demanding their repeal," he said.
Asked if consultations were held before introducing the bills, Tomar said various committees/task force were constituted recommending for several market reform measures to remove restrictive provisions impeding development of an efficient and competitive marketing system, for promotion of direct marketing, and for encouraging contract farming. They also recommended rationalisation of market fee/tax structure, deregulation of the marketing system to promote investment in market infrastructure, motivating the corporate sector to undertake direct marketing and to facilitate a national integrated market, he said.
Asked how the government will ensure payment of minimum support price (MSP) to farmers after implementation of the farm laws, Tomar said the MSP policy has nothing to do with Farm Acts. Farmers are free to sell their produce to government procurement agencies at MSP or Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets or through contract farming or in the open market whichever is advantageous to them, he said.