Panaji, Oct 4 (UNI) Union Minister for Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar on Sunday attacked opposition leaders calling them 'agents of middlemen' for their objection to farm laws passed recently by the Parliament.
Addressing a press conference in the city, he said the actual situation in the state was that the farmers were earning less for their produce while the cosumers had to pay higher prices for the same.
'Middlemen like hike in prices but the recently passed laws deal with this problem earadicating the middlemen,' he said.
The Union Minister who was accompanied by Goa Agriculture Minister Chandrakant 'Babu' Kavlekar said sometimes he felt that opposison parties had become agents of middlemen.
Claiming that the anti-farm law agitation would die on its own, Mr Javadekar said,'The lie has limited life while truth lives forever.'
The Union Minister, who concluded two-days visit to the state on Sunday, accused the Congress of making 'U Turn' on the issue of farm laws.
'Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had sopken abut such bills in the parliament but Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have launched protest against the far bill. I am going to ask the Congress to look at its manifest for parliamentary elections,' he said.
Accusing the opposition parties of creating confusion that APMCs would be shut down following passage of the law or the government would stop purchasing the produce or the Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be stopped, the senior BJP leader said conduct of the opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha was condemnable and shameful.
Pointing out that country’s 60 per cent of the population was involved in farming sector but their contribution to GDP was merely 15 per cent, Mr Javadekar said there was need to increase the productivity and also give them markets outside the country so that their standard of living improved.
UNI AKM 1227