Farm bills shall promote corporate culture: Cong leader
Jaipur: Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Govind Singh Dotasara on Friday slammed the Centre over the three farm bills passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday and accused the government of promoting corporate culture while limiting the farmers’ role to mere labourers.
“All three ordinances of agriculture shall encourage middlemen and will promote the big industrialists. Also, black marketing will shoot up and a farmer will remain as a labourer as the Mandi system will collapse too. However, big businessmen will benefit from this system,” Dotasara said while interacting with the media.
“The Congress stands with farmers and shall protest the anti-farmer bills,” he added.
He said that under the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, the government is talking of one nation, one market.
However, “this system will kill the Mandi system and corporates and big traders will be able to buy crops at their own prices”, he said.
Similarly, under the the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, contract farming shall be promoted under which companies will till the land while farmers will be working as labourers. Also there will be no security for their future, he said.
Also, the amendment in the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 will increase black marketing and hoarding, the Congress leader added.
He termed all three bills as anti-farmer and said that the Centre did not take opinion from allies.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore said that it would have been better had Dotasara read the three bills passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. “Then, he would not have tried to mislead the farmers of the state.”
Rathore said that in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had announced in its own manifesto to amend the Agricultural Produce Market Act and provide a common market for the farmers of the country to sell their produce.
“Accordingly, the Central government made a historic decision to free the farmers from the chains of Krishi Upaj Mandi system by allowing them to sell their produce to any person and any merchant at any place,” he said.