Mumbai, Sep 26 (UNI) The Narendra Modi government at the Centre is under pressure from big industries and for the benefit of select industrialists, the government has brought in laws that will uproot and destroy farmers and workers in the country, alleged Maharashtra Congress in-charge H.K Patil.
By bringing such laws, the BJP government was trying to bring back the feudal 'zamindari' system in the country. Until these anti-farmer laws are repealed, Congress workers will go from village to village in support of the farmers and will protest with them, he warned the Centre on Friday.
The new in-charge of the All India Congress Committee, Mr Patil, was on his first tour of Maharashtra today. He was given a very warm welcome by Congress state pesident Balasaheb Thorat, PWD Minister Ashok Chavan, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Tribal Development Minister K C Padvi, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar, Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh, Minister of State for Home Satej (Bunty) Patil, State Working president Muzaffar Hussain along with party office-bearers and workers.
Addressing a press conference here at Tilak Bhavan, Mr Patil criticized the anti-farmer policy of the central government and said that taking advantage of the serious crisis of Covid-19 and by violating all the rules of democracy and parliament, the central government has cheated the farmers by hastily passing the agriculture bills.
These bills will completely destroy the agricultural sector and the farmers, he noted.
Under the bills, Agricultural Produce Market Committees will be shut down and in such a situation, farmers will have to sell their produce in the open market, he said and pointed that the new law does not have a minimum support price.
As a result, farmers will be looted at a large scale by traders and industrialists, he informed.
Under the guise of contract farming, big industrialists will eliminate small and medium farmers, he iterated and said that while agriculture and markets are the subjects of the state, the Modi government has enacted these laws without taking the states into confidence.
As the existence of market committees is threatened, lakhs of workers working in these market committees will be rendered unemployed, feared Mr Patil.
The BJP leaders who are claiming that this law is in line with the promises made by the Congress party in its 2019 manifesto, are misleading the people of the country by spreading these lies, Mr Patil clarified.
"The Congress had promised a 'Nyay' scheme in its manifesto. According to the scheme, the poor people of the country, including a large number of poor peasants, were promised Rs 72,000 per annum in cash. We had promised to increase the working days under MNREGA from 100 to 150. The Congress is a party that stands in support of the farmers, not a party that leaves them in the lurch by enslaving them to private traders," Mr Patil added.
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