Punjab farmer objects to use of photo in farm ordinance campaign

BATHINDA: The Union agriculture and farmer welfare ministry’s campaign to promote farm ordinances has failed to impress many, least of all its “protagonist”. A farmer from Punjab, whose photograph has been used in a poster released on Sunday, has been left hurt and fuming.
“I vehemently oppose the three ordinances and can never be part of their promotion,” Gurpreet Singh, who is also an environmentalist and a social activist, of Chandbhaja village in Faridkot district told TOI. He said that these ordinances were antifarmer as they disturb the prevailing trade practices and leave farmers at the mercy of corporate companies.
“I feel hurt as the ministry has used my photograph without my consent. I will raise the matter with the ministry and lodge a protest as I cannot be seen promoting something that I oppose. How I can be a party to this and term these ordinances as farmer friendly? Now, I’ll find to tough to explain my position to those with whom I am working against ordinances,” he said.
Import ban list has items being made in India
In a related step, the defence ministry has “bifurcated” the around Rs 1.2 lakh crore capital outlay for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. “A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year,” defence minister Rajnath Singh said.
Though outright procurements of the notified products from abroad will be banned, Indian public and private sector companies can continue to tie up with foreign manufacturers to produce them in India.
This is in tune with the government’s decision in May to raise the FDI limit to 74% from 49% in the defence production sector through the automatic clearance route.
The new negative list includes many products that are already being produced domestically or are in the research and development phase. The list, for instance, includes the 123 Tejas light combat aircraft that the IAF is expected to induct for over Rs 85,000 crore.
Promulgation of the list, which will be reviewed and expanded every year as domestic production capacity increases, will allow lead-time to the Indian industry to prepare itself for the anticipated requirements of the over-15-lakh-strong armed forces.