Appealed to Prez to revert Agri Bills for amendments: Azad

Opposition parties met President Ram Nath Kovind in Rashtrapati Bhawan and appealed to revert the Agriculture Reform Bills to the Parliament for reconsideration with necessary amendments. Around 18 opposition parties submitted a memorandum to the President in support of their demand.

New Delhi: The opposition parties on Wednesday appealed President Ram Nath Kovind to send back the Agriculture Reform Bills to the Parliament for reconsideration with necessary amendments.

"We have appealed Hon'ble President to send back the controversial Agriculture Bill which was forcibly passed by the government in the Parliament for necessary amendments," said senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad.

As many as 18 opposition parties submitted a memorandum to President in support of their demand.

Before meeting the President at Rashtrapati Bhawan, all the opposition leaders held a meeting with Azad inside the Parliament.

"Leaders of all 18 political parties met me today and unanimously decided to meet the President against the Agricultural Bill," said Azad.

He said that this is an anti-farmers bill.

Read:| Exclusive: Agri bills have hidden agenda to end assured purchase of grains, unfortunate that passed in undemocratic way: Balwinder Bhunder

"Government should have brought the Bill after taking all stakeholders including political parties and representatives from farming sectors into confidence," said Azad.

He stated that the opposition has demanded to send the Bill either to a standing committee or to select committee.

"Unfortunately this Bill has neither been send to standing committee nor to select committee, " said Azad adding that the government even did not allow the motion to send the Bill to the select committee.

Leaders like Ahmed Patel, K Kesgava Rao, Jai Ram Rajesh and others had accompanied Azad to the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

"We have submitted the memorandum criticising the way the Bill was passed," said Azad.

Referring to the chaos in the House over the Bill, Azad said that opposition is not responsible for the chaos, "it was the government who was responsible".

Azad was also vocal against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Singh.

"The Deputy Chairman was also in a hurry to pass the Bill. There was no chance for division, voting or anything," said Azad.

As a mark of their protest, the opposition parties have boycotted the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha.

Kisan Morchas and agriculture organisations in support with the opposition called for a Bharat Bandh on Friday.

Read:| Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee to hold 'rail roko' agitation from Sept 24-26 against Agri bills