Farm Laws Repeal: SKM To Decide Future Course Of Action On Sunday, Hopes Centre Will Fulfill All Demands

Apart from the repeal of farm laws, a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) has been one of the major demands of the farmers.

File Photo: PTI

New Delhi: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Friday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on repealing the three contentious farm laws and said that its future course of action will be decided after the core committee meetings on Saturday and Sunday.

“We hope that the government will not let its announcement go waste and go full length to fulfill our demands, including legislation to guarantee MSP,” the umbrella body of farmer unions wrote in a statement, as reported by news agency PTI.

Welcoming the Union government’s decision to repeal the three laws, SKM stated that if the farm laws are formally repealed, it will be a “historic victory” for the farmers who struggled for a year.

The farmers’ body also highlighted “mobilisation of a large number of farmers to protest sites on November 26 to mark the first anniversary of the agitation is being intensified.”

Farmer leader and SKM’s core committee member Darshan Pal said it was good that the Union government has decided to repeal the agrarian laws but demanded the legislations be formally revoked in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.

The other demand was that the Centre come to an understanding on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops, he said, stressing, “We want a legal guarantee on MSP.”

“We will not leave the protest sites unless these demands are met. To bring a consensus on the future course of the agitation and discuss MSP and other demands of farmers, the farmers’ body will meet on Saturday and Sunday. The final decision will be taken at the SKM’s core committee meeting on Sunday,” Darshan Pal told PTI.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the borders of the national capital since November 26 last year to demand repeal of the three farm laws -- Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

In his address to the nation on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the three farm laws will be repealed in the coming Winter Session of Parliament.

The farmers’ body responded to the development saying: “The Samyukt Kisan Morcha welcomes this decision and will wait for the announcement to take effect through due parliamentary procedures.”

“The agitation of farmers is not just for the repeal of the three black laws, but also for a statutory guarantee to remunerative prices for all agricultural produce and for all farmers. This important demand of farmers is still pending,” it stated, as quoted by PTI.

The SKM also stressed that the demand for the withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill is still pending.

Claiming that nearly 700 farmers have died during the protests, the farmers’ body said, “The Central government’s obstinacy is responsible for these avoidable deaths, including the murders in Lakhimpur Kheri.”

Besides repeal of agrarian laws, PM Modi announced that a committee will be formed to make decisions on the subjects of promoting zero budgeting-based agriculture, to change crop pattern scientifically as per the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more effective and transparent.

The Committee will have representatives of the Union government, state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists, and agricultural economists, he informed.

(With Agency Inputs)