Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Wednesday sympathised with the farmers staging protests on the streets against the anti-farmers’ and anti-agricultural laws brought in by the Centre, rather than celebrating National Farmers’ Day. He termed the Centre’s decision not to withdraw the new farm laws or make changes to meet the demands of farmers as unfortunate.
In a statement, Niranjan Reddy said the new farm laws had claimed the lives of 41 farmers due to the deadlock continuing for over 28 days. A farmer committed suicide opposing the new agriculture laws, four died in accidents while they were on their way to participate in the protests. “It is a shame that 11 farmers died due to cold, cardiac arrest and other health issues while participating in the protests. Scores of farmers were also injured in the Union government’s crackdown against them,” he said.
The Minister observed that farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have been staging protests for 28 days in the vicinity of Delhi in bone-chilling cold weather conditions, but the Centre made no efforts to withdraw the farm laws or even make changes as per the farmers’ demands. He recalled that around 50 farmers’ organisations along with over 1.4 crore truck drivers from across the country were fighting in support of the farmers.
Niranjan Reddy said despite the unrest, the Centre had failed to respond to meet the demands of farmers and emphasised the need for Indian civil society to take up the responsibility of protect the agriculture sector on which about 55 per cent of the country’s population depended directly. He asserted that the Centre must include an assurance offering Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all major crops and make it mandatory to purchase all crops for MSP.
He demanded that the Centre unconditionally accept 10 demands such as implementation of the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Committee.
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