Ravi Shankar Prasad says Agricultural laws will help farmers become 'self-sufficient'

Union Minister of Law Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday welcomed the Farm laws saying that they would help the farmers of India become "self-sufficient". The Union Minister also spoke about how the number of crops that the government was purchasing from the farmers was steadily increasing giving an example of the Moong crop which the Centre began purchasing after the Modi Government came to power. 

"With the new agricultural laws, every farmer will now become self-sufficient. The number of crops purchased by the government from farmers has increased. For example, the government did not buy the moong crop in 2013-14. At the same time, in 2019-20, 1.66 lakh MT of moong was purchased by the Modi government," the minister tweeted.

Read: Piyush Goyal Slams 'Enemy Of Farmers' Congress Over Tractor Burning At India Gate

Read: Punjab CM Defends Cong's Violent Farm Protest, Asks, 'why Bother If I Burn My Tractor?'

Farmers' agitation continues 

The protests over the farm laws continued on Monday with farmers in Punjab sitting on the Amritsar-Delhi railway track. Several farmers, under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, have been staging a dharna on the rail track in Punjab since last week. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh also held a sit-in protest, in Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. Earlier in the day, the Punjab Youth Congress live-streamed their protest, burning a tractor at the India Gate. The police are trying to identify those involved in the condemnable incident. 

Meanwhile, in Karnataka, farmers groups have called for a state-wide shutdown against the agricultural laws. The bandh was supported by the opposition Congress. It has criticised the laws terming it ‘anti-farmer’ and alleged that they were passed in violation of the rules. Farmers have expressed apprehension that the Centre's farm reforms would dismantle the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big companies.

Read: Farm Bill Protestors Set Tractor On Fire At India Gate While Chanting Pro-Congress Slogans

Read: Congress' Tractor Burning At India Gate Condemned: 'What Andolan Is This?' Asks Javadekar