Farm Law Protests- Who is right? Farmers or the Government

 Picture Courtesy: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/farm-laws-claims-and-reality-6717662/

This article was written by Aditya Kohli, a student of Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur.

INTRODUCTION

As we acquaint that in Delhi, a large number of farmers are protesting on the streets of Delhi regarding the new Farm Bill which was introduced by the government. From one end, the government said that this law has not been made in such an air, it is 20 years of hard work of the government. Also, the government said that once these laws come into force, then all the farmers of India will get new farming opportunities. On the other hand, farmers said to make these laws no consultation or talk has been taking from us. It may possible that these laws will good in the starting years but further, in the near future these laws This law will make the situation very difficult, Farmer’s land can be snatched away, and the protection provided to farmers by MSP and APMC can be taken away. However, to resolve these conflicts and problems between the government and farmers took several measures. Even 11th rounds talk has been conducted between the government and farmers nevertheless, no result came into the picture, and the situation remains the same. So, for now, the situation has been stalled and to solve it neither, the initiative is being taken by the government nor by the farmers. So, in that case, a citizen has a problem deciding whether the government is right or the farmers, yet we will talk about who is right in this article.

WHY WERE WE NEED NEW FARM LAWS?

We have to find out the problem in the existing agricultural laws, due to which we need new agricultural laws. At present time farmers, goes to the license commission agent or Arthiyas to sell their produces or crops in designated Mandis. If we talk about Punjab and Haryana almost have 48000 Licensed commission Agents (Arthiyas). The work of Licensed commission Agents to packaging, polishing and assorting the farm produce. So, these commission agents provide all services to the farmers. Also, these Arthiyas is also known as servicemen because they provide their services to the farmers. But however, all those farms produce sold in the market is charged by the commission agent from 1.5 to 3 per cent of the entire sale from the farmers. Therefore, these agents also called negatively middlemen. So basically, these three new farm laws talk about eliminating the commission agents (Arthiyas).

Now a question arises here that in every state where there is Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), there are also commission agents like there are 48000 agents in Punjab, then if this new law comes into force. So those already 48000 agents will become unemployed, then what will happen to their jobs?

Every state has designated mandis, which regulates by the state government under its own APMC Act. As we told you above, the commission agents charge 1.5 to 3 per cent commission on the total selling of the farmers produce. Similarly, the state government receives mandi tax or duty on the business being done within the APMC. For the knowledge of the readers, let us tell that only Punjab and Haryana collect 1750 and 850 crores from their APMC mandis. Thus, almost all of India collects 8600 crore revenue from APMC Mandis.

There are some problems in APMC due to which we have required to implement the new agricultural law. According to the APMC census in 2019, there were 6630 APMC mandis in India, where the produce has been procured through MSP (Minimum Support Price). Generally, on average, an APMC mandi is spread over 479 square kilometers. Therefore, not all small farmers travel to Mandi to sell their crop production and let their crops sell to the nearby traders.  Also, it is necessary for readers to know that only 6 per cent of total farmers of India taking benefits from the MSP.

The first problem is that the APMCs of India not being able to satisfy the need of Indian farmers. The second problem is that Commission agents charge 1.5 to 3 per cent to give their services to the farmers. Therefore, to tackle these flaws in existing agricultural laws and promote new opportunities to farmers, we need to implement these three new agricultural laws.

PROMOTION & FACILITATION ACT, 2020

First of all, the law says that a farmer can sell his crop and produce outside the APMC mandis, and if he does so, he will not have to pay the APMC mandi fee or state tax.

CONTRACT FARMING ACT, 2020

The second law is the one that talks about contacting farming and direct farming. The risks related to them will be taken directly by the businessmen, and private companies, and Indian farmers will not face any problem.

ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES ACT, 2020

The third law says that whatever grains such as pulses, oil and etc. deregulate the storage and movement of their products, that is, the boundary that has been removed provides a more intensive for cold storage. So, farmers protesting against these three new farm laws.

ROLE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA IN FARM LAWS.

Readers, you will be surprised to know that this protest against farm laws by Indian farmers is a very long protest, which is one of the long-standing protests of independent India. Therefore, the supreme court of India is involved in this case and has given some important judgements related to new farm laws.

First, the Supreme Court of India has established the right to protest as a fundamental right. Because fundamental rights are safeguards by the Indian Constitution.

Secondly, the Supreme Court of India said that we need to find a solution to this problem by negotiating between the government and the farmers. For which the Supreme Court had formed a committee consisting of four members to resolve this situation.

Therefore, the Supreme Court has issued a stay order on the new farm laws until the problem is resolved.

PROBLEMS OF THE FARMERS WITH THE NEW FARM LAWS.

The prime problems of the farmers are: First, if these new laws come into force, then they will abolish the APMC mandis. Second, this law will also abolish the concept of MSP, which protect farmers. These two problems are the only hypothesis of the farmers. Because these three laws do not talk about any such thing, APMC Mandis and MSP will be abolished after the law comes into force. But this hypothesis is not completely wrong for the farmers as we told you above. The state government collects state taxes from mandis which it uses in the development of the state such as farming, irrigation, road construction, banking etc. In the present system, farmers sell their produce directly to the mandis and the state government collects state tax from those mandis and is used in the development of the state. But the new law will have a new market system with APMC mandis. So, where this new market will compete with APMC mandis to maintain itself so that more and more farmers leave APMC mandis and come to the new market.

So, it may be that this new market will benefit the farmers a few years from the beginning compared to APMC and MSP and gradually this market will develop. So, what will happen with this, for example, if 50 percent of the farmers go to the new market, then APMC will be closed gradually. How, APMC survives on mandi tax, and if farmers start going to new markets then where will this mandi tax come from and APMC will be closed. Due to this, farmers are afraid that once the APMC is closed, the security of the MSP will also be terminated because this protection is available only in the APMC mandis and there is no such security provision in the new market. The farmers’ thinking says that if all APMCs of the country are closed, then this new market will establish its monopoly, which is not a matter of interest of the farmers.

GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM OF FARMERS.

The Government of India said that we are ready to give written assurance on MSP to the farmers. Apart from this, it also assured that the MSP was earlier meant for farmers, it still is today, and it always will be. Government clears its thought on new farm bills that we have come with these laws because we need to establish a well-developed and better Mandis for the farmers where they could sell their produce easily and gained profits. There are also many farmers in the country today who are not able to take advantage of government schemes. Therefore, laws have been changed for such farmers, new laws have also been made, and new schemes of the government have also been made which will give benefits to the farmers. However, the matter of whether the APMC mandis will be abolished is a matter of the state government concerned. The state government can collect tax revenue and run the private market according to its priority, just like the state runs the APMC mandis. Therefore, according to the government there is no question of abolishing the APMC mandis.

The second problem of these laws is that the farmer can contract with private companies, but if for some reason he is unable to complete the contract, according to the contract, private companies can subdue that land. Regardless of the farmers, such a clause has been inserted in the law and the government claims that no one can take away the land of the farmers. That is why the government has enacted the Empowerment and Protection Act which talks about the protection of farmers. Also, it clearly states that there will be no transfer of land by sale, lease and mortgage in any case.

The third problem is that after the implementation of these new agricultural laws, if the farmers have any complaint, then the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) is only authorized to deal with the complaint of the farmer who already has more work. With this, the farmer cannot go to the civil court in any problem, then what happen whatever dispute will take between the farmers and companies it will take time to be resolved, which is a very big problem. On which the government has said we would ensure that farmers will get the hearing in the courts.

CONSLUSION

Finally, we conclude that farmers have some problems with the new agricultural laws, only then the farmers are demanding to abolish these laws. With this, the government said that we have made this whole agricultural legislation for 2 decades before implementing it, we assure the farmers that there will be no change in the subsidiaries, and the farmers’ concerns will also be resolved. So, we can say that the farmers are right to some extent because the government’s laws which prevent them from going to court for justice, take away their land from the industrialist, snatch their employment from them. The government should take back all three laws. Therefore, the person who provides food to the country will not be happy, who is a farmer, then how will our country progress in the field of agriculture.