Describing the agriculture-related Bills brought in by the Central government as anti-farmer, P. Maniarasan, coordinator, Cauvery Urimai Meetpukuzhu, on Sunday alleged that they would only benefit multinational companies and corporates.
Addressing the media, he said it was disheartening that the Centre was showing undue urgency in passing the Bills. Opposition parties were denied the opportunity to register their protest during the passage of the Bills in the Rajya Sabha, he added.
Mr. Maniarasan felt the legislation would ultimately drive farmers out of their landholdings and force them to quit agriculture gradually. In spite of unfavourable conditions, nature’s fury and an unpredictable monsoon, agriculture and farmers, in general, had thus far been given protection to some extent by way of the minimum support price. With the new laws, the Centre was planning to do away with MSP for paddy, wheat and other produce, he said.
“There is also a threat of the disbanding of the Food Corporation of India. There may be no procurement of paddy and wheat,” Mr. Maniarasan claimed.
He said the AIADMK’s expression of apprehension about the Bills in the Rajya Sabha ran counter to the stand taken by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami. It had exposed the double standards of the AIADMK on an important issue, he said. “By supporting the Bills, Mr. Palaniswami betrayed the farmers of the State. He should change his stand at least by considering the opposition to the Bills across the country and from Akali Dal, the BJP’s ally,” he added.
According to him, it was time to take a united stand against the anti-farmers Bills. The Members of Parliament from the State should resign en mass to register their protest. The copies of the Bills would be set on fire on September 24 in Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Cuddalore, he said.
Meanwhile, a group farmers staged a protest by burning the copies of the Bills on Gandhi Road in Thanjavur on Sunday. On information, the police rushed to the spot and arrested the protesters.