CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal said here today that demanded that the anti farmers and pro-corporate provisions of the APMC Act 2017 enacted by the Amarrinder-led Congress government must be scrapped in a special Vidhan Sabha session.
Commenting on the Chief Minister Captain Amaridner Singh’s statement on the convening of the assembly session, Mr Badal said that the CM’s U-turn on the session “is a decisive first victory of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the farmers organizations. This was one of the major objectives of the massive Kisan Ros March organized by the party on October 1, along with the annulment of the center’s three Acts on farm marketing.
Mr Badal recalled how Captain Amarinder Singh had ridiculed the Akali demand saying that this was no solution to the problem. “But seeing the intensity of the Punjabis’, especially the farmers’ rage during the October 1 Akali Ros March and in the protests of the farmers’ organizations, Amarinder has felt compelled to take this U-turn and to agree to convene a session, ” said Mr Badal in a statement here this evening.
Scrapping of the provisions of the anti farmer 2017 APMC act as well as declaring the whole of the state of Punjab as notified Mandi, or Principal Market Area, have been the consistent demands of the SAD while urging the state govt to convene a special session of the state assembly., ” said Mr Badal.
The Akali supremo however added that though the center’s Acts must be rejected by the state assembly, ” yet a mere rejection of these Acts would have no practical implication or utility for the farmers if the state is not declared an agricultural market and also if the 2017 APMC Act continues to remain in force in the state. “The only way to render the center’s legislation redundant and un-implementable in Punjab is to put the whole of the state beyond the purview of the central Acts by declaring the whole of the state a Principal Market Area or notified Mandi because those Acts are not applicable in areas declared as markets by a state government, ” said Mr Badal.