Chandigarh: The Head of the Punjab Congress Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday attacked Badal, accusing them to lay the foundation of central agricultural laws where farmers protested over the past few months.
The Congress leader accused that one of the Central Laws was “copy photostat” of Punjab contract agriculture laws, 2013 was enacted during the previous SAD-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal.
Amritsar MLA also claimed that Badal initially supported the middle law and then took U-turn after facing the heat of the farmer.
“With the confidence and clarity that I said that Badal lay the foundation of the three middle black laws,” Sidhu said overcoming his first press conference after assuming the allegations of the Punjab Pradesh congress committee.
“The bad is a policy maker (Neti Nirmata) for three black laws,” Sidhu’s alleged.
Sidhu said former CM Parkash Singh Badal had submitted a contract on contract agriculture in the Punjab assembly in 2013 and was later imposed as a Punjab contract agricultural law.
Punjab law is “soul” while the three “black law” is “body”, he said.
Sidhu claims that the law of Punjab has never talked about the price of minimum support and allows companies to buy harvest underneath to exploit farmers.
As many as 108 plants, including wheat and rice, were carried by law, he said.
In the case of disputes, the bureaucracy was given the power to settle under the Punjab contract agriculture law, he said, adding that farmers were banned from approaching the court.
Sidhu also compared several Punjab legal provisions with the Center for Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) of the Center for Agricultural Service Guarantee and Law, 2020, said it was a “copy photocator” of state law.
He said there was no guarantee of MSP in both laws, which mentioned the completion of disputes by the bureaucracy, bars on the jurisdiction of civilian courts, the amount recovered as land income, the agreement period and registration authority.
He said according to these two laws, it is a company that will decide on agricultural services and they can also buy plants directly from the fields that can kill APMC Mandis.
Subdivisional judges were given protection and no farmers who filed any laws under the two laws, he said.
According to Punjab law, if a farmer made a default, he could be sentenced to one month in prison and was forced to pay a fine starting from Rs 5,000 to RS 5 Lakh, he said.
This law is framed only to benefit KorPorat, Sidhu accuses.
The cricket-turned politician slams Badal for first supporting three central agriculture laws and then taking U-turn after criticism from farmers.
Some Parkash Singh Badal video clips, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsymrat Kaur Badal showed that they praised the three central agricultural laws were also played during a press conference.