'Not in Interest of Landless Workers': Punjab CM Moves Three Bills in Assembly to Counter Centre's Farm Laws

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday moved a resolution in Vidhan Sabha rejecting the three new farm laws. He said that the new farm laws are against the interests of the farmers and landless workers.

The chief minister then moved three Bills — Amendment to the Farmers Produce Facilitation Act, Amendment to the Essential Commodities Act, Amendment to the Farmers Agreement and Farm Services Act — to counter Centre's farm laws.

Earlier on October 14, a decision to convene special session of the assembly was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Singh in Chandigarh. The chief minister had said that his government will fight the anti-federal and vicious farm laws tooth and nail through legislative, legal and other routes. The CM had said he would call a special session of the assembly to bring in necessary amendments to state laws to negate the dangerous impact of the central legislations, which are designed to ruin the farmers as well as the state's agriculture and economy.

In the assembly session on August 28, a resolution was passed by a majority to reject three contentious farm ordinances, which later took the shape of the laws. The farmers in the state have been holding protests demanding that the three farm laws passed by Parliament recently be repealed. They have expressed apprehension that the new laws will pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates.

The Centre, however, has maintained that the new laws will raise farmers' income, free them from the clutches of middlemen and usher in new technology in farming. The three farm bills — the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 — were passed by Parliament last month. Subsequently, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bills.