NITI Aayog VC urges citizens to support agriculture reforms; says they'll liberate farmers

On a day when Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar moved two agriculture Bills in the Rajya Sabha, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has urged the citizens to support the Central government. Taking to Twitter he said that the Government is taking "historic effort" to liberate India's farmers by giving them the freedom for selling their farm output to whom they like; where they like and not having to pay the fees for simply selling their hard-earned produce.

'Farmers will surely double their incomes'

In another tweet, he continued and said, "Along with the continued assurance of the Minimum Support Price, India's farmers will surely double their incomes in the coming period."

These Bills are -- Farmers' and Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. Both of them were passed by the Lower House with a voice vote a couple of days back.

'Bills not related to MSP'

Moving the Bills, the Minister said, "The two Bills are historic and will bring a change in the lives of the farmers. They will be able to freely trade their produce anywhere in the country. I want to assure the farmers that these Bills are not related to Minimum Support Price."

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The bills are facing staunch opposition from farmer bodies as well as from within the ruling coalition. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the food processing minister from the Shiromani Akali Dal party, resigned from the government. K K Ragesh (CPI), Derek O'Brien (TMC), Trichi Siva (DMK) and K C Venugopal (Congress) moved resolutions for sending the two bills to a select committee of the House for consideration before they are taken up for passage.

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Under MSP, the government guarantees the procurement of crops such as wheat and paddy at minimum prices from farmers. Opposition parties as well as SAD feel the bills are the first step toward removing the MSP which will force the farmers to make distress sales to private companies. Opponents of the bills see them as an attempt to dilute the country's public procurement system and lead to exploitation by private companies.

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(With PTI inputs)