Rajya Sabha passes two farm bills amid opposition

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed two contentious farm bills amid protests by opposition parties which demanded that the Bills be sent to select committee for further deliberations.

The Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, were passed by voice vote.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that there will be no change in minimum support price (MSP) and this bill will benefit the farmers. The union government has taken several steps to ensure that income of farmers increase," said the agriculture minister NS Tomar said in the Rajya Sabha.

The opposition parties had said the Bills hurt the practice of minimum support price (MSP) for farmers, promotes corporatisation of the farm sector, attacks the federal structure on the grounds that both agriculture and markets were state subjects, among other objections.

“These bills are ill conceived and ill-timed and Congress party completely rejects it. We are not ready to sign death warrants of farmers on this. Agriculture and markets are both state subjects. When your own allies don't listen to you, why do you expect farmers to listen to you…Please do not kill us, Punjab and Haryana's economy will get completely finished," Pratap Singh Bajwa, senior leader of Congress said in the House.

Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, among others, had opposed the Bills.

"I want to know what is the



compulsion to bring the Bills now? The alliance partners of government have also opposed it. Why is the government not ready to debate and discuss the Bills? Why is the government not ready for greater scrutiny?" said Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party during discussion on the Bills.

During the discussion, BJP leaders said the Bills were pro-farmer and will help provide them a level-playing field. “This is the biggest agriculture reform of recent time. Our focus needs to be now on value addition, trade and marketing. You are stopping the progress of farmers merely for your own political concerns," senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav said during the discussion.

While The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, seeks to give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside the notified APMC market yards (mandis) and is aimed at facilitating remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 ,seeks to give them the right to enter into a contract with agribusiness firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters, or large retailers for the sale of future farming produce at a pre-agreed price.

A third Bill--The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020--which to remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onion, and potatoes from the list of essential commodities and doing away with the imposition of stock holding limits, is also scheduled to be moved in the Rajya Sabha. All the three bills have already been passed by Lok Sabha.