Several farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti on Monday held protests in several districts of Punjab against the Centre’s recent ordinance on the agriculture sector, besides the proposed amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003 .
Farmers staged the protests in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur, Moga, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Fazilka districts and submitted memorandum to the authorities addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the revocation of the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 and withdrawal of the amendment to the Electricity Act.
“We demand that the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 should be immediately taken back. It’s an ill-conceived and anti-farmer move on the part of the Central government,” Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab unit, told The Hindu .
He said the implementation of the ordinances would ultimately lead to exploitation at the hands of big corporate houses. “The BJP government has given a free hand to private corporate houses to exploit the farmers,” he said.
The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 aims at opening up agricultural marketing outside the notified mandis for farmers and also removes barriers to inter-State trade.
“We have also demanded that the Union government should withdraw the amendments to the Electricity Act, which will only harm the agriculture sector and bring further financial distress to farmers.”
