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Tractor marches horde Indian streets as farmers demand agri law ‘weeding’

Tue 01 Dec 2020    
EcoBalance
| 2 min read

India’s government invited protesting farmers for talks on Tuesday, seeking to allay concerns about new laws growers fear could pave the way for the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers.

The government had initially invited farmers for talks on Thursday but agreed to meet on Tuesday due to cold weather and the coronavirus pandemic, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.

More than 300,000 farmers marched from the states of Punjab and Haryana – on foot and in convoys of tractors – over the weekend to reach the Indian capital for what they described as a “decisive battle” with the central government. The police employed tear gas and water cannons to deter the march and ripped up highways.

Earlier, an umbrella group representing different farmers’ unions slammed the government for saying it would engage in talks with the farmers if they moved their protest off the roads into a designated stadium site.

If the government is serious about addressing the demands of farmers, it should stop laying down conditions, they said.

The farmers are protesting against a series of agricultural laws that see the deregulation of crop pricing, including the removal of guaranteed minimum crop price, which farmers say will destroy livelihoods. The government has argued that the laws are necessary reforms that give farmers more autonomy over the selling of their crops and will break big unfair monopolies.

Small growers fear the new laws will make them vulnerable to competition from big business, and that they could eventually lose price supports for staples such as wheat and rice.

Among the demands, the call to remove a fine for stubble burning — the practice of setting fields alight to raze old crop — ranks high.

While farmers say it is unavoidable, stubble burning is a major contributor to the toxic air pollution that engulfs Delhi and northern India in the winter months, sounding an alarm on this year’s Air Quality Index that took a dive to new lows. It has been made illegal as a result.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi resisted calls for the repeal of farm reforms, saying growers were being misled and that new laws would benefit them.

India’s vast farm sector contributes nearly 15% of the country’s $2.9 trillion economy and employs around half its 1.3 billion people.

[Sourced from Agencies]