Under fire from farmer organisations and the opposition parties, the Centre has decided to craft a fact-check campaign to dispel the myths over the three farm laws that are at the heart of the stir. Although the agitating farmers and the government are discussing the laws to break the logjam, the talks have yielded no positive results so far. Today is the 12th day of the farmers' stir.
According to reports, the campaign will dispel the myth that the laws are anti-farmer. The government will highlight that the safety net of MSP will remain, and these bills will add to the options the farmers have. Besides, farmers will be able to enter into direct agreements for the sale of produce with food product companies.
The campaign will also seek to address the concerns that the new laws will be an advantage for big corporates and a loss to farmers.
The facts as stated are that in many states, farmers successfully produced crops like sugarcane, cotton, tea, coffee, along with large corporates. Now small farmers will benefit from technology and equipment with guaranteed profits. Instead, the laws prohibit sale, lease and mortgage of farmers' land and ensure sponsors are prohibited from acquiring ownership rights or making a permanent modification on farmers' land.
The government will tell the farmers that problems faced by them till now have been improved and that they can sell produce even outside the mandis across the country at a higher profit.
Earlier, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the new laws do not affect MSP at all and that the existing APMC is a strong organisation and it will not be weakened. “The government is committed to the welfare of farmers,” he said.
According to a report in news agency IANS, only 6 per cent of farmers are being benefitted from the present farm policy and that these farmers are rich, and the rest of 94 per cent farmers are not benefitted.
The three laws -- the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, according to the government, seek to provide for trading areas outside the mandis and this has been a source of anger among Punjab and Haryana farmers. The Centre is arguing that the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee impose charges which ultimately reduce the price realization of farmers. The government wants to check this commission which is charged by intermediaries. While the Centre has failed to convince farmers, the Congress government in Punjab has extended full support to farmers' agitation. The farmers and the opposition parties are not ready to buy the government’s arguments.
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