Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Congress and other non-BJP parties join any protest in the country for the sake of opposing government’s move. He said, the actions of the opposition parties reflect their dire attempts to save their existence.
Taking a dig at Congress for opposing the new farm laws, Mr. Prasad said, the Congress party had clearly mentioned about amending the farm laws in their 2019 election manifesto. He said, protests just in order to score political mileage by Congress, NCP, Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties expose their duplicity and double standards.
Mr. Prasad said, NCP leader Sharad Pawar advocated for amendment in farm laws in 2005 and is opposing the reforms today only to settle political scores.
The Minister said, misinformation is being spread among the farmers that Narendra Modi government will eliminate farmers by making contracts with large corporates. He pointed out that contract farming was also recommended during UPA government. He added that several state governments have implemented contract farming in their states and many of these states were Congress ruled states. Mr Prasad stressed that under the provisions of contract farming, farmer’s land can neither be leased, nor sold nor mortgaged. He said, there will be no obligation related to their land and the contract will be related to sale of produce only.
The Minister said, extensive consultations, trainings and outreach programmes were conducted on the agriculture laws with stakeholders. A total of one lakh 37 thousand webinars and trainings were conducted since June this year where 92.42 lakh farmers participated.
He stated that 318 lakh tonnes of paddy worth 60,000 crore rupees have been procured by November. He emphasised that out of this, 202 Lakh tonne procurement has happened only from Punjab.
