GUWAHATI, Sept 25 - As part of the nationwide agitation against passage of the three farm bills in the Parliament, various farmers� and peasants� organisations, with support from trade unions and other bodies led by women, youths and students, today held protests in the city.
The State unit of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) staged a sit-in demonstration at the Guwahati Club rotary. Members of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Joint Council of Trade Unions, All India Democratic Women�s Association, Students� Federation of India and Democratic Youth Federation of India also participated in the event. The agitators raised slogans against the NDA government and called upon President Ram Nath Kovind to return the bills to Parliament for reconsideration.
�The government is using the COVID-19 pandemic to push through its anti-farmer and anti-worker policies. Parliamentary procedures were openly flouted and Parliamentary norms were violated to push through the three bills in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,� AIKS State unit secretary Tiken Das said.
The Farmers� Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, were passed by the Parliament during the just-concluded Monsoon Session and will now go for assent of the President.
�Our struggle against these legislations will continue till the Central government agrees to roll them back. These bills, if enacted into Acts, will lead to corporatisation of Indian agriculture and convert the farmers of the country into slaves and wage labourers. Farmers will be deprived of Minimum Support Price (MSP). Contract farming will lead to exploitation of the farmers, especially the medium and small farmers. In addition, removing cereals, edible oil, potato, onion and other such items of daily use from the list of essential commodities will facilitate hoarding by unscrupulous traders, thus leading to artificial scarcity, price rise and a threat to food security,� Das said.
He said the NDA government has also violated cooperative federalism by passing bills which deal with a subject like agriculture which is part of the State List, without consulting the state governments.
Meanwhile, the Krishak Sangharsha Samannay Samiti Asom, comprising 19 organisations, staged a protest at Chandmari. Jayanta Gogoi, assistant secretary of Asom Rajyik Krishak Sabha, accused the NDA government of working at the behest of big corporate houses. He said the bills would harm the agriculture sector and increase agrarian crisis.
