The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) has urged the State government to revoke the amendments and laws on land reforms and APMC introduced by the previous BJP government, on the grounds that they are detrimental to the farmers.
A demonstration was held in Mysuru on Thursday as part of a State-wide agitation urging the Siddaramaiah government to revoke and drop the Land Reforms Amendment Act 2020, APMC Amendment Act 2020 and the Anti-cow Slaughter Act.
While the Karnataka Land Reforms (2nd Amendment) Act 2020 paves way for non-farmers to buy agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, the APMC (Amendment) Act 2020 allows for selling agricultural produce outside the ambit of the APMC.
Mr. Badagalpura Nagendra, president, KRRS, said that the land reforms Act was an effort by the BJP to facilitate corporates and industrial houses to procure land from farmers and expressed concern that it would have a negative bearing on agriculture and food security. He said it was a blatant effort during the pandemic to snatch away the land of the farmers and had it over to the corporates and even the Congress led by Mr. Siddaramaiah, had opposed it.
The amendment to the land reforms act struck at the very concept that tiller is the owner of the land which prevailed in the State since decades, according to the KRRS leader.
‘’It is our demand that now the Congress is in power and Mr. Siddaramaiah himself is the CM, the laws inimical to the welfare of the farmers should be revoked and the process should be completed in the very next session of the Assembly,” said Mr. Nagendra.
The amendment to the APMC Act was opposed by the farmers on the grounds that it paved way for multinationals to enter agriculture market and there were concerns that in the long run they would control the market with devastating consequences to the farming community, said Mr. Nagendra. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew three contentious laws following a year-long agitation by the farmers, the BJP governments of B.S .Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai in Karnataka did not follow suit. Hence we urge Mr. Siddaramaiah to revoke the Acts,” Mr. Nagendra added.
On the Anti-cow slaughter Act, Mr. Nagendra said that the provisions in the law has ensured a ban on sale of cattle for slaughter and this was forcing farmers to abandon the practice of rearing cows and cattle. The law has lent a debilitating blow to the practice of animal husbandry and dairy farming as low milch yielding cows cannot be dispensed with under the law, according to Mr.Nagendra.
The KRRS also urged the government to give statutory provisions to the recommendations of the Agricultural Price Commission on minimum support price. ‘’Otherwise they will be advisory in nature and not benefit the farmers,” said the KRRS.
‘’It is only fair that the new government should be given time to settle and perform. But in case the Congress fails to meet any of our demands then protests will be intensified,” said Mr. Nagendra.
