Dialogue with Farmers to Continue on 5th December says Tomar

Representatives of 40 Farmers’ Unions held talks with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Prakash at Vigyan Bhawan yesterday.   

Senior officials from the Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of Food Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution also took part in the dialogue. This was the 4th round of talks held in a cordial and frank atmosphere. The next meeting would be held on December 5. 

At the beginning of the talks, Union Agriculture Minister reiterated Government’s commitment towards welfare of farmers. He requested the representatives of the Unions to present their view and the flag the issues which they felt were contentious.  

The representatives of the farmer's unions raised question of the constitutional validity of the 3 laws. The Government side explained the constitutional provisions under which the Central Government legislated these laws. The farmers brought out issues related to the APMCs – They said that there has to be a level playing field between APMCs and Private Markets and Trade Yards. They also said that there is a need for proper registration of Trade outside APMCs. 

The issue of safeguarding land of farmers in the Contract Farming Act was also raised. The farmer's unions also requested that the MSP system must be made legal. Regarding dispute resolution system in the new Farms Acts the unions said that there is a need for an alternate dispute resolution system.

Sanjay Agarwal, The Secretary Agriculture & Farmers Welfare gave a detailed description of the Farms Acts and the measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture for the welfare of farmers and those measures taken to benefit agriculture sector during the lockdown period to keep the supply chains active. He said that the Farm Acts have been framed keeping in mind the farmer’s welfare. 

Tomar assured the Unions that MSP will remain and therefore the farmers must not fear that it will go away.

Source: PIB