President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to the three contentious farm bills that were passed by Parliament amid uproar in Parliament and large-scale protests by farmers.
As per gazette notification, the President gave assent to three Bills: 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.
Soon after the president’s assent to the bills, the Maharashtra government announced that it won’t implement the “anti-farmers” law in the state. “The Bills passed by Parliament are anti-farmers. So we’re opposing it. Maha Vikas Aghadi will also oppose it and not implement it in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena is also with us. We’ll sit together and form a strategy,” Maharashtra revenue minister Balasaheb said.
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, seeks to give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside the notified APMC market yards (mandis). This, the government says, is aimed at facilitating remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels.
Calling it a “dark day”, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the President refused to act as per the nation’s conscience. “It’s really a dark day for India that the President has refused to act as the nation’s conscience. We were very hopeful that he would return these bills to Parliament for reconsideration as demanded by SAD and some other opposition parties,” ANI quoted Badal as saying.
