The chief minister pointed out that Punjab has been at the forefront of ensuring food security for the country. (File)

AHEAD OF the Punjab Congress launching a ‘Jan aandolan’ to oppose ordinances on farming reforms, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the three recently issued central government ordinances related to the farming sector, in the interest of farmers, and take into account the spirit of “cooperative federalism”.

Amarinder’s reaction came a few hours after PPCC president Sunil Jakhar announced a ‘Jan Aandolan’ in the state on the issue. Speaking to the media, Jakhar said he had called a meeting of party MLAs on Tuesday and they will take a call on how the campaign would be started in the state.

Jakhar was speaking to media after submitting a memorandum to the Governor V P Singh Badnore, demanding that the ordinances be withdrawn as this would put the farmers in the lockdown forever and nobody would be able to rescue them.

Amarinder on the other hand pressed the need for the Centre and states to work together to secure the collective good of the people of the country. The chief minister has, in a letter to Modi, sought a reconsideration of the three ordinances — for permitting trade in agricultural produce outside the physical boundaries of the set-up of the agricultural market under APMC Act, easing of easing restrictions under the Essential Commodities Act, and facilitating contract farming. All three should be revisited keeping in view the concerns and the interests of the farmers, said Amarinder, seeking “protection of the farmers’ interests at all times”.

The chief minister pointed out that Punjab has been at the forefront of ensuring food security for the country. The development of crop production technology for wheat and paddy as well as its dissemination, supported by the assured procurement at minimum support price (MSP) by FCI in the notified markets, has played a key role in building up buffer stocks and making the country self-reliant, he stressed. The results of this policy, were most visible when the country was able to face the unprecedented crisis emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic with confidence, with no threat of hunger and food deprivation.

He said agriculture is a subject entrusted to states by the makers of the Constitution and features at entry 14 on the state list. On the other hand, trade and commerce feature as entry 33 of the Concurrent List, which enables both the Union and states to legislate on the subject provided the state legislation, is not repugnant to the legislation of the Union.

Referring to the specific ordinances, the chief minister said the Agriculture Produce Marketing System in Punjab had stood the test of time and served the state and country well over the last 60 years. It had in fact been an important contributor to the success of the ‘Green Revolution’, he said, adding that it had helped in ensuring food security on the one hand and securing livelihoods of millions of farmers and farm workers on the other. Further, he pointed out that a well-developed infrastructure has also been created in Punjab, both for open marketing and storage of produce and seamless transportation of produce from farm-gate to mandis and godowns. The state government is in the process of further upgrading this infrastructure to support modern farming and agri-marketing practices, he added.

However, the changes as per the Ordinance dated June 5, 2020, in the agricultural marketing system, had led to widespread apprehension among the farmers of the state that the Union Government was planning to withdraw from the assured procurement of food grains produced by them. He said there was also another apprehension that the proposed barrier-free nation-wide markets for farmers would really come to mean a nation-wide market for traders, possibly to the detriment of the already debt-ridden and beleaguered farmers of the State. Coming as it does in the times of the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis, it will further exacerbate the socio-economic tensions among the farmers of the state, said the CM, adding that this would not at all be conducive for the peace and development of the region, which faces serious challenges of public order due to a live international border.