Farm bills liberalisation for farmers, opp spreading canards: Sambit Patra

Senior BJP leader Sambit Patra Friday slammed the opposition Congress and TMC for "misleading" the farmers on the farm bills issue and said the reforms will ensure liberalisation in the farm sector for the first time since Independence. He also criticised TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for agreeing to implement the central flagship Ayushman Bharat and PM -Kisan schemes with the rider that the central funds for the same should be channelised through the state administration.

"The precondition was meant to allow the TMC cadres to indulge in corruption to extract cut money," he said. Speaking for the farm bills which was passed in Rajya Sabha amid chaotic scenes on Sunday, Patra said "The opposition parties are misleading the farmers on the farm sector bills. The opposition is not saying anything about the provision of the bills. They are spreading rumours that farmers won't get the minimum support price for their produce. "Nowhere in the bill is it written that the farmers won't get the MSP. They will continue to enjoy it like in previous years," Patra said. He said the farmers will have their own choice about whom to sell their produce.

"This is not only liberalisation of the agriculture sector but also the liberalisation of every single farmer of the country. The farmers will taste freedom for the first time after Independence," Patra told a press conference. The farm sector reforms have ensured that farmers can sell their products to anyone outside his 'mandi'. This will empower him to sell wherever he gets a better price and grow what fetches him money, he said. The opposition claims that farmers will lose their lands when the bills become laws are only canards to mislead the cultivators, he said. The three bills passed by Parliament are the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The Congress, along with many other opposition parties have claimed that the bills will harm the farmers' interests and benefit corporates. This claim has been denied by the Centre, which has asserted that the proposed laws will be beneficial for farmers and increase their income.

On Banerjee's recent proposal on implementing Ayushman Bharat and PM -Kisan Samman Nidhi schemes with the rider, Patra said the TMC government is only interested in "cut money". "The TMC government is neither interested in agriculture nor industry. It is only interested in cut money. The TMC government wants the funds from the Centre under these schemes to fill their party coffers ahead of the state assembly election," the national spokesperson of BJP said. Patra also condemned the killing of BJP workers in various parts of Bengal during the lockdown.