In protest against the Centre’s farm bills, farmers in Punjab will organize a three-day ‘rail roko’ movement from today onwards.

After being cleared in the Lok Sabha, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 were passed by voice vote in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday with scarce opposition. Presently the government anticipates to get signature of the President on the bills to become laws.

Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti secretary general Sarwan Singh Pandher said last week that it has been decided that they would organize a ‘rail roko’ movement against agricultural bills from 24 to 26 September in the state. Farmers of the state, along with farmers from Haryana and parties across the country, have been in opposition of the bills since they were introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Another Ranchers’ association has called for a state-wide ‘bandh’ on September 25th.
The dissenters stress that the bills will destroy the current Minimum Support Prince (MSP) framework and leave the ranchers helpless before big corporate lobby sharks. In any case, the administration asserts that the MSP framework will proceed unaltered and the new bills will bring about higher benefits for the ranchers.

PM has guaranteed the ranchers on various events that the “exceptionally noteworthy” bills will profit them as they will remove the force from the hands of go-betweens and allow them to sell their products where they see more benefit. But this is perceived as a false promise by the ranchers and farmers.

After presentation of the bills in the Upper House, Opposition members including Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh entered the well of the Rajya Sabha while the meeting was in progress. They demanded that the bills need to be given for re-examination to a select panel with opposition member at its helm.