Stating the three bills on agriculture passed in Parliament will benefit only corporate companies, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) general secretary E.R. Eswaran has said that implementation of the new laws will lead to more farmer suicides in the country.
In a press release, he said that Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, will affect small and marginal farmers.
They will be forced to enter into agreement with corporate companies and sell their produce at a price fixed by the companies. Small and marginal farmers cannot market their produce across the country and retail traders will benefit a lot. The release said that only companies can stock the farm produce which will ultimately lead to price control mechanisms falling under private hands.
“Attempts are made to project these laws will increase the income level of farmers which is untrue”, he said and added that the Centre should have consulted the State governments and farmers before introducing the bills. He said that the government had advertised that demonetisation and introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) had benefited the people. “But, there is no doubt that it had a negative impact on the people”, he added.