Amid farmers’ protests and mahapanchayats in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab to pressurise the Government to repeal the farm legislations, the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee held another meeting with 12 farmers’ unions and Farm Produce Organisations’ (FPOs) and representatives of 18 State and Union Territories of agriculture departments and sought their feedback over the farm legislations.
According to the agriculture ministry, they not only gave their frank views about the agrarian laws but also gave suggestions to improve the implementation of the laws. This was the second meeting with FPOs. The Committee has held nine round of deliberations with stakeholders engaged directly or indirectly in the agriculture sector so far. The three-member committee has been holding consultations with stakeholders, both online and in person.
In a statement, the committee said it held its interactions through video conferencing with farmers, farmer unions and farmer producer organisations (FPOs). “At least 12 farm unions and farmers from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal discussed the farm laws with committee members through video conferencing,” the committee said. “All the participating farmer unions, FPOs and farmers gave their detailed views and suggestions on the three farm laws,” the committee added.
All the nine deliberations were held without participation of the 41 protesting farmers’ unions. The protesting farmers under the banner of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha - has refused to talk to the committee -continue to protest at Delhi’s borders - Tikri, Singhu, and Ghazipur for over 75 days. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar categorically said that the Union government is ready for another meeting only if the farmers want to discuss this proposal.
According to officials, the committee members had earlier earlier interacted with representatives of agriculture departments’ of 18 states- Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand on Thursday. Officials said that State Government representatives have hailed the farm laws and also suggested some feedback to improve it.
At present, the talks between the Union Government and the farmers’ unions have come to a standstill.