Noida:
The Centre has so far not been able to explain what good the new agriculture laws would do to the farmers, Rashtriya Lok Dal vice president Jayant Chaudhary said on Tuesday.
Addressing a mahapanchayat in Mathura’s Mant area, Chaudhary took on the government over a host of other issues being faced by farmers including inflation and rising fuel prices.
”Some people keep asking what is wrong with the laws, but I ask them what is good about the laws. The government has not been able to explain to farmers what good the new laws would do to them,” the RLD leader said.
At the mahapanchayat, the ninth such gathering in western Uttar Pradesh this month, he also sought to drum up support for the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders.
Chaudhary, who has been holding a series of meetings with farmers across the state, alleged that the new laws would ”destroy” the farmers instead of helping them.
He also hit out at the Centre over the rising prices of petrol, diesel, fertiliser, manure and LPG, inflated power bills in Uttar Pradesh and pending dues of sugarcane farmers.
”If farmers question the government, they feel the farmer is not intelligent and does not understand anything. But it is their mistake if they think so. The farmers not only know how to work hard but also know how to get the right price for their hard work,” Chaudhary said.
”In 2011, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would talk about a law on MSP (minimum support price) but now he is adamant on not having it,” he alleged.
Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for nearly 80 days to press for the repeal of the Centre’s three agriculture laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.
