C’garh CM Baghel dubs Farm Bills as ‘black laws’
   Date :25-Sep-2020

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 Bhupesh Baghel, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, addressing
mediapersons at Press Club on Thursday. Adv Yashomati Thakur, Woman and Child Welfare Minister of Maharashtra; Vikas Thakre, Congress’ city chief; Vishal Muttemwar also are seen.
 
Staff Reporter :
 
Bhupesh Baghel, senior Congress leader and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, dubbed the recently passed Farm Bills as ‘black laws’ and urged the President of India not to give his assent to those. Addressing a press conference at Press Club here on Thursday, Baghel said that the Farm Bills would ruin farmers and agricultural labourers. The consumers will have to pay arbitrary prices and the capitalist businessmen will become richer, he alleged. He also flayed the Central Government for getting the Bills passed in the Parliament by adopting ‘wrong means’.
 
The implementation of the new farm laws would place the livelihood of farmers, agricultural labourers, employees, and small shopkeepers in the country at risk, Baghel alleged. These would hurt the economy of States. The prices of agricultural commodities would be decided by big corporate houses, he said. Further, he alleged, implementation of these laws would reverse the achievements of Green Revolution and farmer would be reduced to a bonded labourer. The new laws would allow businessmen to hoard agricultural produce. Explaining why was Congress opposing these laws, Baghel said that abolition of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) would deprive farmers of minimum support price for agricultural produce.
 
He cited the example of Bihar where APMC reforms were implemented and only brokers stood to gain. Questioning the Government claim that the reforms would allow farmers to sell their agricultural produce anywhere in the country, the Congress leader said that 86 per cent of farmers had low land holding and were hence unable to transport or sell of produce anywhere other the grain or vegetable market. Baghel accused the Central Government of giving ‘one shock after another’ to the nation through measures like demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST), lockdown etc.
 
He alleged that Chhattisgarh had not received GST grant from the Centre since April this year. Chhattisgarh should have received around Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre, he said. “We urge the President not to sign these black laws and send them back to Parliament,” Baghel said. Congress was with the farmers and demanded that all three laws be revoked. Also, he demanded, Bharatiya Janata Party should apologise to the country for disrespecting Members of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. Asked if Congress-ruled States would not implement the new laws, Baghel replied, “We are going step by step.
 
We have made a request to the President not to sign these laws. We will take steps that are in the interest of farmers.” If required, he said, Congress would go to court as the States were not taken into confidence before passing the Bills in the Parliament. To a question about him being a ‘star campaigner’ of Congress for Bihar Assembly elections, he replied that if party leadership had taken the decision everyone would come to know at right time. Adv Yashomati Thakur, Woman and Child Welfare Minister of Maharashtra; Vikas Thakre, MLA and Congress city chief; Vishal Muttemwar, Atul Londhe accompanied Baghel during the press conference.