Manpreet Singh Badal said the minimum support price was the main reason for opposition to the bills (file)
Lucknow:
Punjab’s Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Friday targeted the Center on Farm Bills and said his government would challenge the laws in the Supreme Court.
The congressman told reporters that the Punjab government “is preparing to challenge the bills in the Supreme Court on two points.”
“First, it is a state subject and the Union government does not have the right to enact legislation on this subject. Moreover, the federal government cannot destroy the state economy. Because of the bills, the losses will be too great for a small state like Punjab, ”he said.
Badal said the laws would not only result in lost revenue for states, but also unemployment.
He added that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) was the main reason for opposing the bills.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Agriculture tweeted that the MSP system will not be abolished, so why don’t they make this point in the bills, he asked.
“The reality is that the government wants to get out of the PSM,” he said, adding that the laws will be opposed until the “last breath”.
When reminded that farmers in Uttar Pradesh are not protesting the bills, he said they may not be so aware that their losses will not be any different.
“Farmers in the UP can be simple but not so simple that they won’t understand their losses and gains; the difference between a ‘chor and chaukidar’ or ‘sharab and sharbat’, ”he said, adding that the bills have exposed the ‘anti-farmer’ face of the Union government.
Mr Badal also criticized the Union government over the promise to double farmers’ incomes and said he had failed in all respects in the last six years of his rule.
“The growth of agriculture under the BJP regime is 3.1%. It was 4.3% under the UPA government. Farm incomes are at their lowest in 14 years. The Prime Minister had said the Swaminathan Commission report would be implemented but nothing happened, “he told reporters.
The Parliament recently adopted the Essential Products (Amendment) Bill; Agricultural Trade and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill; and the Agreement on Price Guarantee and Agricultural Services for Farmers (Empowerment and Protection).
The laws have not yet obtained the president’s nod.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
