Central Government has not solved these problems, as Central Government itself is the problem

Navjot Singh Sidhu Punjab Vidhan Sabha,

4th March 2021:

In the political history of India, on multiple occasions, States have stood for the Rights of their People, defying the Government of India, to be the rightful voice of the People and safeguarding the federal structure of India. Be it Cauvery River water dispute or Satluj Yamuna Link dispute, State’s stood their ground given to them by the democratic powers of the People. More recently, some states have taken decision against implementation of CAA-NRC. In case of the three Anti-Farmer Laws, Punjab and Rajasthan have passed amendment legislations. But today, as 3 Crore Punjabis stand by us. We must do more, take an affirmative action and completely deny the implementation of the three unconstitutional black laws in Punjab.

Since, three farm laws by Central Government are a clear infringement on the state’s right to legislate. The main subjects of the three acts are agriculture and market that are essentially state subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. However, the Central Government encroached its way into the legislation by misconstruing its authority on food items, a subject in the Concurrent List, as authority over the subject agriculture. However, food items and agricultural products are distinct categories.

To further elaborate the illegality of the three Black Laws, let’s take the example of Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act: Through this, the Central Government seeks to take control of the entire intra-state sale and purchase of all the agricultural produce and has trampled upon the entire space which is otherwise a domain of the State Governments. Furthermore, Section 6 of the Act lays down that the state will not charge any market fee, cess or levy on the trading of farm produce. This is again a clear encroachment on the domain of the State Governments. It is very much within the competence of a state to charge a market fee or cess on the trading of agriculture produce within its territorial space. Entry 33 of the Concurrent List deals only with trade and commerce of foodstuffs and other items and permits no such inference that the Central government can legislate on the subject of market fee, cess or levy, much less prohibit the state from levying the same. Moreover, there is no term such as ‘trade area’ in the constitution. The power to legislate on markets and fairs is only with the State Government (Entry 28). The legislation provides no clue as to how ‘trade area’ is different from ‘market’. The Union government cannot scuttle the legislative sphere of the states, nor can an entry in the Seventh Schedule be overridden or rendered null & void by merely employing different terminology.

Thus, we have enough Grounds to completely deny the implementation of these Black Laws in Punjab.

Yet, why in this case, we are just amending the Central laws and sending them back, when we know very well that all these amendments will not be implemented until either approved by the President of India or if the Central laws are first withdrawn. By means of mere amendments, we are going to the Constitutional Heads, who may not choose to help us, and maybe is not a good position to be in at this decisive critical juncture. Instead, why not use the democratic power given to us by 3 Crore Punjabis by honouring their aspirations?

Using our power to Legislate and become Game-Changers, take further progressive steps, from now on itself, to help Punjab’s farmers who are looking towards us with high hopes: –

1. Expansion of procurement in the state, beyond wheat and rice, to help farmers get MSP and also diversify. Punjab exports more water beyond its sustainable limit through cultivation of paddy, than could be channelled out through the SYL canal. Yet, the farmers can’t diversify until we give them MSP and assured procurement. To begin with, Punjab can procure Dals & oilseeds through Markfed or PunSup on MSP. Punjab imports dals and edible oils for our own consumption, even for the Atta-Dal Scheme, Dal is imported. Keep aside the money we use to import dals and edible oil from outside, and utilise it to procure from Punjab itself. State Corporations can further process Oil seeds and market them outside Punjab. We can begin with procurement of Mah, Masoor, Til and Saron from this year itself. In Future, Punjab can expand MSP and assurance of procurement to Vegetables and Fruits. For this to become reality, we must take the second necessary step today, which is …

2. We should start investing in infrastructure to give storage capacity in hands of the farmers. So that they can strengthen their holding capacity and bargain better with traders. Building a Cold storage in every five villages of Punjab, allowing the farmers and the State to grow, procure and market vegetables and fruits at MSP, fulfilling Punjab’s nutritional demands through its own production. I have been raising these demands and making people aware of this alternative route to punjab’ prosperity since September 2020, let us now come to the third point, which is Central to this coordination of production and procurement, among the farmers, and between the farmers and the state.

3. Amend Cooperative Act of Punjab, allowing Punjab’s farmers to make cooperatives as per 1990-91 Planning Commissions Model Cooperative Act. To ease the practice of registration, management and operation of Farmer Cooperatives (FPOs) in hands of Farmers and not leave them upon the mercy of officials. Farmers as producers should also have powers to decide the price of their crops, have better bargaining power, so that as a collective they can stand against the powerful corporates. We should give Punjab’s farmers mechanisms to fight the capitalist, why are we not doing that? Farmers are the only producers who buy everything in retail and sell their produce only in whole sale, for example, a farmer in our state has to sell tomatoes at 3 Rs. per Kg, which is sold in retail at 30 Rs. per Kg the same day and in a few months it is sold in the open market at retail prices going up to 60 Rs. per Kg.

4. We must not only fight for the farmers, but also for the farm labour. A professor, a politician, a corporate employee, or any salaried employee has a fixed wage, and is given regular increments. Today, when we are fighting for Farmers rightful MSP. Why forget the 80 percent of Punjab? Why ignore the 50 Crore Indians who don’t even get a single square meal a day. Where is the plan for them? Instead of giving priority to the poorest Indian, Government of India has given priority to a chosen few corporates. They have taken away rights of poor, labour, farmers and handed them over to the super rich, but where is the plan to help the daily wager? We all know what the Government does for the Corporates, for the salaried, but how much effort has been out to solve the problems of 80 percent India?

I demand, that we give MNREGA-like Income support to all Agricultural Labour of Punjab, It will benefit not only the labour as an increment in their daily wages but also help the farmer as an agricultural labour subsidy and ease their financial burden. We should increase the minimum wages of labour, linking it to inflation and Government should directly pay the difference. 36% of Punjabis are Dalits, owning only 2% of Land, most of them work as labour, let us support them!

Central Government has not solved these problems, as Central Government itself is the problem.