Last year, Centre passed the three contentious farm laws, leaving the farmers quite angry. Despite repeated calls to repeal the laws that may potentially harm the interests of the farmers, the central government has refused to budge.
Since late last year, farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and some other states have been protesting at Delhi borders. Soon, some states took the matter in their own hands.
Many states, since last year, have taken a political route to negate the impact of Centre's farm laws.
The Shiv Sena-led MVA government in Maharashtra introduced three amendment bills in the assembly related to agriculture, co-operation, food and civil supplies, in a move to counter the new farm laws enacted by the Centre that are facing stiff opposition from a section of cultivators.
The bills have provisions for higher than MSP rate for produce in farming agreement with traders, timely payment of dues, three-year jail term and Rs 5 lakh fine or both for harassment of farmers.
They also have provisions to give power to the state government to regulate and prohibit production, supply, distribution and impose stock limits on essential commodities.
The draft bills have been prepared by a cabinet sub-committee headed by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Pawar said the draft bills will be in public domain for two months during which all stakeholders can hold discussions and debates on their provisions.
The bills will be taken up for discussion and passage during the winter session of the legislature in Nagpur (held in December).
The Rajasthan government in November last year introduced four bills to counter the farm laws recently enacted by the Central government.
Parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal tabled the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020 during the special session of the Rajasthan Assembly.
According to the statement of objects, the bills seek to “protect the interest of farmers, farm labourers, those engaged in ancillary and incidental activities relating to production, sale and marketing of agricultural produce as also consumers and for adherence to the minimum support price mechanism”.
In October last year, Punjab approved three bills to counter the Centre’s farm laws. The state was the first in the country to have formally rejected the controversial laws.
One of the bills provides for imprisonment of not less than three years for the sale or purchase of wheat or paddy below the minimum support price. The bill also makes forcing farmers to sell below MSP punishable.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had moved a resolution in the legislative Assembly against the three new agriculture laws that were passed in Parliament last month amid chaos, PTI reported.
In December, the Kerala Assembly passed a unanimous resolution seeking the Union government to withdraw the three contentious farm laws.
While moving the resolution demanding the immediate scrapping of the new laws, Vijayan said the country was now witnessing one of the most iconic protests ever by farmers in its history. “The central farm laws, passed in Parliament, were not only “anti-farmer” but also “pro-corporate,” he alleged and said that at least 32 farmers had lost their lives in the last 35 days of the agitation.
“Legislative assemblies have the moral responsibility to take a serious view when people have anxieties about certain laws which affect their lives,” he said, adding that agriculture was part of the culture of the country.
BJP’s lone member in the Kerala Assembly, O Rajagopal, supported the resolution seeking scrapping of the three contentious farm laws.
In January, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed a resolution against Centre's three farm laws.
State's parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee moved the resolution which seeks immediate withdrawal of the laws by the government.
Addressing the Assembly, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Centre should either withdraw the new laws or step down.
The CPI(M) and the Congress supported the resolution but demanded that the state government withdraw similar laws it had passed a few years back, news agency PTI reported.
The Chhattisgarh assembly, last year, approved the Chhattisgarh Krishi Upaj Mandi (Amendment) Bill 2020 that declared the entire state as a market for selling agriculture produce to negate the Centre’s farm laws that allowed private players to directly buy produce from farmers.
Introducing the amendment Bill in the House, state Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey said it was aimed at protecting farmers from fluctuating market prices and payment risks.
The special session was convened amid apprehensions among farmers across the country that the Centre's new laws would harm them, including a fear that their land and produce could be handed over to corporates, he said.