NEW DELHI, 24 Nov: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill to repeal the three farm laws which led to protests at various Delhi border points by thousands of farmers for nearly a year, and it will be introduced in Parliament during the upcoming winter session.
The Cabinet approval comes following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on November 19 regarding withdrawal of the three farm legislations. He had said the Centre could not convince protesting farmers about the benefits of these laws, while urging them to end their protest.
The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 has been approved to roll back the three laws which were passed by Parliament in September last year with an objective to bring reforms in the agriculture sector, especially marketing of farm produce.
“The Cabinet has completed the formalities to repeal the three farm laws. …In the upcoming session of the Parliament, it will be our priority to take back these three laws,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told reporters.
Thakur, however, did not reply to queries related to setting up of a committee to study minimum support price (MSP) and other farm issues as announced by the Prime Minister.
The winter session of Parliament will commence on 29 Nov and conclude on 23 Dec
The three laws to be repealed are — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.
Later, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar tweeted that the Cabinet’s approval in the very first meeting after the Prime Minister’s announcement is a sign of the uniformity of his “words and deeds”.
The repeal of these three legislations has been one of the key demands of around 40 farmer unions protesting against these reforms for nearly a year now. (PTI)
