A member of the Supreme Court committee on farm laws has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that if the court does not release the report of the panel on farm laws, he will make it public at an appropriate time.
Anil Ghanwat added he would do this to inform policy makers and farmers since the majority of submissions to the committee were supportive of the now-repealed farm laws.
Two previous letters
Mr. Ghanwat, one of the three-member panel appointed by the apex court on farm laws, has in his letter to the PM pointed out that he has previously written two letters requesting the report’s release. He said, “It is now almost a year since the committee submitted its report to the Supreme Court. If the court does not release the report despite my two letters requesting its release, I will make it public at an appropriate time to inform policy makers and farmers, particularly since the overwhelming majority of the submissions the Supreme Court Committee received were supportive of the now-repealed farm laws.”
The letter has also been sent to Chief Justice of India and Union Minister of Agriculture.
Mr. Ghanwat, a farmer leader and president of Swatantra Bharat Party (SBP), also demanded lifting of the moratorium on Genetically Modified crops. He said he will launch a ‘Feed India Movement’ from February 16, with the slogan ‘Biotechnology to Feed India. Natural Farming to Starve India’.
“There is a suspicion among farmers that your government is promoting natural farming in order to cut its fertilizer subsidy. We oppose all subsidies but these must be removed only after the full suite of reforms have been enacted and farmers compensated for negative subsidy,” he wrote to Mr. Modi.
One of the demands raised by Mr. Ghanwat includes preparing a White Paper on agriculture policy which shall consider a full suite of reforms, including technology reforms, not piecemeal reforms.
