Chandigarh: “I am not afraid of resigning,” Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said today after his government moved a resolution in the state assembly against the contentious farm laws enacted by the centre recently.
“I am not afraid of my government being dismissed. But I will not let the farmers suffer or be ruined,” he said in the state assembly.
The resolution was moved by Mr Singh, who is the Leader of the House, on the second day of a special assembly session in Chandigarh over the new farm laws. The Chief Minister also introduced three bills to counter the centre’s farm laws.
Punjab is looking to counter the effects of the farm laws in the state level by using state laws as much as possible.
Meanwhile, MLAs of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party last night in the assembly building in protest against the Amarinder Singh government not sharing the draft of a new law on agriculture.
The three bills introduced by Amarinder Singh are – Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment Bill 2020, the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill 2020.
All three controversial farm bills that were at the centre of a huge political storm and cost the ruling BJP its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, became laws on September 29 with the signature of President Ram Nath Kovind.
The Akali Dal said the bill should have been introduced in the Punjab assembly on Monday itself.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today moved a resolution in the state assembly against the contentious farm laws enacted by the Centre recently.
The resolution was moved by the Leader of the House on the second day of a special assembly session here over the new farm laws.
The Chief Minister also introduced three bills to counter the Centre’s farm laws.
The three bills introduced by Amarinder Singh are – Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment Bill 2020, the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill 2020.
Addressing the members of the House, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said agriculture is a state subject but the Centre ignored it. “I find it very strange what the government of India wants to do,” he said.
The three farm bills – the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – were passed by Parliament recently.
Subsequently, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bills.
Farmers in the agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana are protesting against the Centre’s farm laws.
