Chandigarh:
The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution against the Centre’s draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing, asserting it is an attempt to bring back the three farm laws repealed by the Centre in 2021.
On the concluding day of the two-day assembly session, Punjab Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian moved the resolution in the House.
Two BJP MLAs were not present in the House when the resolution was passed.
The Centre had last year shared the draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing with the state government for its views on it.
According to the draft policy, it aims to “build a vibrant marketing ecosystem in the country wherein farmers of all categories find a market of their choice to realise the best price for their produce”.
The resolution stated that “The House feels that this draft policy is an attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farm laws repealed in 2021 by government of India after a long protest by the farmers”.
“The House further feels that since this issue is a State subject as per Constitution of the country, Government of India should not come up with any such policy and should leave it to the wisdom of the States to frame suitable policies on the subject as per its concerns and requirements,” the resolution said.
It mentioned that the House recommends to the government of Punjab to take a firm stand on this issue so that the thriving APMC mandis in the state can be protected and strengthened.
The resolution recommends that the issue be taken up with the government so that no further transgressions happen in the legislative domain of the states.
It stated that the broad spirit of the policy is to “promote” private markets and to significantly dilute the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets and to eventually make them irrelevant.
“As of now, farmers are able to sell their produce in the APMC markets in a totally transparent manner and under a well-established regulatory regime which ensures that the interests of the farmers are safeguarded.
“With the coming in of private markets, APMC markets will be destroyed. Thereafter, the farmers will be at the mercy of the owners of the private markets,” it said.
Participating in a debate on the resolution, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said his government has already rejected this draft policy.
“We will not allow rights of the states to be robbed,” he said while slamming the Centre over the issue of withholding the state’s rural development fund.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
