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Our Bureau All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), welcomed the four farm legislations passed by the Punjab Assembly and urged all other States to follow the model so that the Centre’s three farm laws can be nullified. AIKS General Secretary and senior CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah said the States and the Centre should enact a law promoting “Peasant-Worker Social Cooperatives” against corporatisation of agriculture.
He said the passage of the Bills in Punjab Assembly is a victory for farmers. Mollah said, the Bills are a step in the right direction.
The former MP said the BJP is using Governors in Opposition States so that similar Bills are not passed by the Assemblies.
He said the Punjab Bills rightly points that the Central Acts violate the federal character of the Constitution and ‘seek to give unlimited power for stocking essential commodities and trading them to the peril of agricultural community and consumers permitting trafficking in enhanced price and rapacious profiteering’. “The timely action to legally overcome the three pro-corporate arm Acts brought by the BJP government and assert the federal rights of States is notable,” he said.
‘Falling short’
However, he said, the effort falls short on many counts, especially in ensuring Minimum Support Price (MSP) as per C2+50 per cent for all crops and assured procurement. “It restricts itself only to MSP protection for wheat and paddy while remaining silent on other crops. It has to be contrasted with steps taken by the LDF government in Kerala to announce MSP of 16 vegetables and procurement of paddy at ₹2,750/quintal which is about ₹900/Quintal more than the centrally fixed MSP and efforts to assure remunerative prices through cooperatives,” he said.
He said the Punjab Acts only partially addresses the demands of farmers across the State for providing MSP in two crops by provisioning legal action against traders purchasing below the MSP in those crops. “They failed to address the larger issues of corporate contract farming and takeover of farm land,” he said.
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