Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh said that the three Farm Bills namely the Farmer’s Produced 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 are “in larger interest of the farmers of our country” and the State Government is strongly in support of the bills. He said this while giving a press briefing to media persons on Thursday at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Imphal.
N. Biren Singh further said that any role back in reforms and development taken up by the government would mean to support any vested interest which, in future, would hinder other reforms too. He further expressed his views that fear of commission agents to lose their commission, rich farmers taking the opportunity to get a legal guarantee of lucrative Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and the farmers’ misconception that the government would scrap the MSP must be the reason for protest against the bills in some parts of the country.
The chief minister then maintained that prime minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah had repeatedly given assurance to the farmers that the Government had no plans to end the Government procurement system or the MSP policy. “Fortunately, farmers of Manipur are in support of the three Farm Bills which were passed by the parliament in September this year”, he added.
He then stated the government brought up the bills to benefit the farmers as farmers could directly take orders and make purchases with no commission agents and middle men. He also appealed to the farmer of the country not to support the current agitation against the three bills.
NNN