Farm Bills brazenly crushes Bengal's pro-farmer initiatives: Agri experts
Kolkata: The carefully woven policy of the Mamata Banerjee government to benefit both the farmers and consumers will be brazenly crushed by the anti-farmers policy of the Centre.
According to the agriculture experts, in the name of benefitting the farmers what has been passed on "Black
Sunday" in Rajya Sabha will actually strengthen the hands of hoarders and the middlemen and the final losses will be of farmers and the marginal ones.
The Farm Bills, which at onset looks to be pro-farmer, will actually make them slaves in the hands of the big agricultural players and the touts, the experts opined adding that
the law will finally make the hoarders richer and farmers poorer.
In connection with the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, which removes cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onions and potatoes from the list of essential commodities and removes stockholding limits on them, the experts stated that it will make the hand of a section of traders stronger in hoarding the same resulting in skyrocketing of its prices. In this connection Agriculture Advisor to the Chief Minister Pradip Majumdar said: "How exemption from hoarding of agri-commodities like potato, onion, pulses etc is going to benefit small and marginal farmers of India. They will be disposed of to traders soon after the harvest. Then who will be allowed to hoard the commodities? Obviously,
a section of traders who have procured it from the small farmers! So how farmers will be benefited while the consumers will be fleeced through hoarding by traders?"
He further said that in Bengal farmers are independent to sell their produce to anyone they like. There are no legal restrictions on it. The state government has set up Krishak Bazaars at every block just as a platform for farmers to sell their produce to the buyers, but farmers are not forced to sell their produce there.
The state government does not impose any tax or charge from farmers for selling their produce. The Bengal government also goes for direct procurement of paddy from farmers at minimum support price and immediately the amount is transferred to their bank account. "So handing over the procurement mechanism in the hands of big players, replacing the existing one, will lead to exploitation of marginal farmers. They will be forced to go for stress sale and consumers will also fall victim to skyrocketing prices due to hoarding," Majumdar said.
