New Delhi: Congress party on Thursday alleged that the Central Government wants to earn Rs 1 lakh crore from the farmers by ending MSP through these passed farm bills. Congress also accused the Government of passing these agriculture bills in Parliament in an unconstitutional manner.
While addressing a Press conference, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, "MSP is not mentioned anywhere in these three bills. Technically, nowhere is it written that we repeal or remove MSP, but this is a kind of truth that we call half-truth, which is bigger than a lie"
He alleged that the Government aims to implement Shanta Kumar Committee Report in the country, saying, "You are indirectly implementing the suggestion of Shanta Kumar Committee. You will save one lakh crore if you don't buy on a fixed price. So you have adopted this big dangerous conspiracy, misleading, false, fraudulent method."
"You say you can go to mandi if you want, you can also sell it on MSP, but what is the justification to say that you have not cancelled MSP? There is no mention of MSP, no criteria for pricing despite that you are tricking the nation by saying that we have not removed MSP," he added.
While mentioning another point of 'Contract farming' in these bills, Singhvi stated, "In 75 years, why didn't our constitution-makers think about contract farming? Now there is no limit to the amount of paddy you can store. This Government has changed that."
The Congress leader mentioned that there is no provision of dispute resolution in these bills, due to which farmers will have to face problems in future as they won't be able to approach to Courts against a Corporate if anything misdoing occurred.
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"If there would be a quarrel, what do you think farmer will go to court? Have you set up any Special Organisation for tackling such situations? Just removed MSP and agreement, extended storage limits and no dispute resolution provision," he said.
Alleging that these bills passed in an unconstitutional manner in Rajya Sabha, on Sunday, amid the protests of opposition leaders, Singhvi noted that the Speaker is mandated to provide a division of votes even if one single MP demands that.
Speaking over the matter, he said, "I want to ask directly if there was quorum or not, half the people were sitting on one side then who checked the quorum? 5 to 7 people asked for a division of votes, but nobody paid heed. This bill is passed in an unconstitutional manner."
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President, Anil Chaudhary, who was also present in the press conference informed that a 'Save Farmers, Farm-Workers Association" has been formed which will protest against these bills for two months as a part of Congress' nationwide demonstration.
As per the schedule, DPCC will start on online campaign 'Speak Up for Farmers' on September 26, which will be followed by a protest march from Rajghat to Raj Bhavan on September 28. On October 2, DPCC workers will burn effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in each Assembly of Delhi. From October 2 to 31, there will be a signature campaign in which Congress will collect signatures of farmers on a memorandum against these bills and a conference will also be organized for the farmers of Delhi on October 10.
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