President Ram Nath Kovind gives nod to all three farm bills
New Delhi : President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to all the three contentious farm bills, which led to massive protest across North India after opposition parties tagged them as anti-farmer and corporate-friendly.
The government has notified the farmers about the new move. More than a dozen opposition parties had urged President Kovind not to sign the contentious bills, alleging that they were passed "unconstitutionally" in "complete disregard" of parliamentary norms.Â
SAD even pulled out from the ruling NDA over the passage of the bills in the Parliament. The SAD and the BJP had been allies since 1996 when both forged a pre-poll alliance ahead of the 1997 Punjab assembly elections which brought them to power.
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, seeks to give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside the notified APMC market yards (mandis). This, the government says, is aimed at facilitating remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, seeks to give farmers the right to enter into a contract with agribusiness firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters, or large retailers for the sale of future farming produce at a pre-agreed price. And the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, seeks to remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onion, and potato from the list of essential commodities and will do away with the imposition of stock holding limits.
