PM Modi makes govt's stand on farm laws clear, shares video of Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar's presser
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reacted to the farm laws that are at the heart of the protests for the last two weeks. Today is the 16th day of the farmers' stir who are sitting at various border points of Delhi seeking a repeal of the new farm laws.
Although the PM has spoken about the laws multiple times, this is perhaps his tweet in the last two weeks on the matter. Taking to the micro-blogging site, Twitter, PM Modi shared a video of Agriculture Minister and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's press conference and urged the people to listen to them carefully.
"My two cabinet colleagues, Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal have discussed in detail about the new farm laws and the demands of the farmers. Must listen to this," PM Modi tweeted.
Farmers claim that 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, were aimed at benefitting corporates by weakening the 'mandi' system and the minimum support price (MSP) regime for procurement of farm produce. However, the government says that the laws seek to provide for trading areas outside the mandis. According to the government, mandis of an 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.
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Earlier on Thursday, the government asked farmer groups to consider its proposals for amending the Acts to address their concerns and said it is open to discussing its offer further whenever the unions want, but protesters remained defiant and threatened to block railway tracks too in addition to highways. The issue remained deadlocked with both sides sticking to their respective positions.
A day after protesting farmers rejected the government's offer for a written assurance on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and amend few provisions in the new farm laws, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said at a press conference that union leaders must consider the proposals and said he is ready for further discussions with them, but left it to the farmer groups to propose a date for the next round of talks.
Addressing reporters along with Food, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Tomar said he is still hopeful of a resolution.
"The government is keen and ready for further discussions with protesting farmers...To clear their apprehensions, we have sent our proposal to farmer unions. I want to urge them to fix a date for discussion as early as possible. If they have any issue, the government is ready for discussion," the agriculture minister said.
"We gave our proposals to farmers after meeting them and therefore we urge them to consider those. If they want to discuss those proposals also, we are ready for that too," he said.
READ MORE: Farmers' ultimatum to govt: Repeal farm laws or will block rail tracks
When asked whether there was some other force behind the protest, Tomar did not give any direct reply and said: "Media's eyes are sharp and we will leave to it to find out."
At least five rounds of formal talks have taken place between the central government and representatives of thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, protesting on various borders of the national capital for about two weeks, but the deadlock has continued with the unions sticking to their main demand for the repeal of the three contentious laws and repeatedly rejecting the Centre's offer to make some changes in law and give written assurances or clarifications on few issues such as MSP and mandi systems.
