Monsoon crops like rice and paddy will be procured two days ahead of time to ensure farmers sell their produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP) said the Central government as per an NDTV report on September 28 following continued protests of farmers against the three agriculture Bills.
By advancing the date of procurement that was originally October 1, the Centre hopes to reassure farmers, who persisted with their agitations against the three laws enacted on September 27. Similarly, the government had earlier advanced the procurement dates in agitation-intensive states of Punjab and Haryana by five days.
The MSPs were announced a month earlier this year amid farmers’ concerns that they will be scrapped due to the new laws. The MSPs were hiked, especially for Punjab-Haryana’s big crops like wheat, lentils and mustard.
However, most farmers’ organisations were suspicious of the move. Bharatiya Kisan Union’s leader Gurnam Singh called the move a “conspiracy” by the Centre to end the farmers’ agitation. Other organisations also said the price-hike was too little to make a difference.
The Centre insists that the new laws, signed by President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday, will benefit farmers bypass wholesale markers to deal directly with big corporations for the sale of produce and even allow pre-harvest contracts.
However, farmers continue to call the news laws “anti-farmer” fearing that they will not receive MSP while dealing with corporates. Supporting farmers’ protest, the Congress on Monday talked about over-ruling the Centre’s laws in the Congress-led states.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi asked states to consider bringing laws to that effect under Article 254(2) of the Constitution that allows state legislatures to pass laws that negate the “anti-agriculture central laws.”
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