Terming the three farm ordinances passed in the Lok Sabha as 'black laws' for the farmers of Punjab, Jails and Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that these legislations would ruin Punjab, the breadbasket of India which is feeding whole India for several decades.Participating in the Punjab Agriculture University's Virtual Kisan Mela, inaugurated by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Randhawa said these ordinances will lead to massive exploitation of the food growers with entry of private corporate houses in the agriculture marketing sector.He said that Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime will be completely wiped out and private players would procure the crops on their own decided rates as government would have no control on them.Jails and Cooperation Minister told that these ordinances will give ample powers to the corporate houses in terms of procurement and storage hence the farmers would be forced by them to work on their wills and they will face harassment into the hands of private players.He told union government has forgotten the contribution of Punjab and farmers for country as it plays an important role in the India’s food production and economy.
Randhawa said being a border state in the country, these ordinances may create law and order situation in the Punjab and may hit the country hard.He appealed the union government to withdraw the ordinances otherwise there will not be farming in future and country may face serious consequences in terms of availability of food for all.The Minister also called the resignation of Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal a drama and said her party is playing a gimmick on this serious issue.He said in the coming days, Chief Minister along with all cabinet ministers and MLAs will stage a protest in Delhi against the union government for these ordinances.We will take every step to counter these anti-farmer ordinances for the interest of the peasantry, he said.Prominent among present occasion included MLAs Sushil Kumar Rinku, Rajinder Beri, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori, Additional deputy Commissioner Jasbir Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer Surinder Singh, Verka GM Asit Sharma, Markfed DM Sachin, Congress leaders Sukhwinder Singh Lalli, Baldev Singh Dev, Angad Dutta and others were present.