3 farm laws repealed after 1 year of protest

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address on November 19, 2021 announced that, central government will repeal all the three farm laws.

Highlights

• He also requested farmers who are protesting, to return back to their homes.
• The decision to repeal the farm laws was taken one year after farmers started their protest against it, across the country.
• These laws will be repealed in the Winter Session of Parliament.

What are those laws?

The three laws that let to agitation by farmers across India are:

1. Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020
2. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020
3. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

What were Farmer’s concerns?

Main concerns of farmers were that, these laws will abolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is guaranteed by the Centre on select crops. It will eventually leave farmers at the mercy of big corporate houses.

Centre’s Decision of the laws

PM noted that, majority of farmers are small scale farmers in India. Central government tool multi-faceted approach ranging from seed technology to crop insurance schemes, in order to help these farmers.  The three farm bills were put forward to benefit of small farmers, to empower & strengthen them.  However, the government could not convince a section of protesting farmers. In that light, the laws were repealed.

Zero Budget Natural Farming

In his address pm also noted that, central government has decided to implement Zero Budget Natural Farming and make MSP more efficient. Government will set up a committee, comprising of Centre, State representatives, scientists, economists and farmers.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2021