The Rajya Sabha has started discussing the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill.
Moving the Bill, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Opposition is trying mislead people by saying that if passed, the Bill will stop the system of Minimum Support Price. He said that the MSP is an administrative decision of the Centre and it will be continued.
Tomar said the Bills will give access to farmers to any market they wish to sell their produces. He said that farmers will have greater say in deciding the prices of their produce. Terming the Bill as revolutionary, he added that it will benefit the farmers of the country.
The Opposition said the Bill is against the Constitutional principles as agriculture is a State subject.
The House is also discussing two motions moved by the Opposition against the Ordinances on the Bills and demanding that the Bills must be sent to a select committee of Parliament.
Initiating the debate, senior Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa said that farmers will not accept the Bills. “This is a conspiracy to end MSP. Government will slowly step out from the agriculture sector to pave way for big corporate houses such as Ambanis and Adanis. This is what happened in United States. This is what happened in India during the colonial regime,” he added.