WITH THE Supreme Court staying the implementation of three contentious farm legal guidelines and constituting a four-member committee to take heed to grievances regarding them, uncertainty revolves across the January 15 assembly between the Centre and representatives of the protesting farmer unions.
While there isn’t any official phrase from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on the assembly, a supply advised The Indian Express, “We will read the Supreme Court order. Our lawyers will tell us what we should do next, then only we can tell you about that (next meeting).”
Another supply mentioned that because the apex courtroom has constituted a committee to take heed to the farmers’ grievances, there isn’t any use of holding parallel discussions.
A 3-member ministerial committee led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has been holding negotiations with representatives of the farmer unions. So far, eight rounds of talks have remained inconclusive. In the final spherical of talks on January 8, either side agreed to fulfill once more on January 15.
On Tuesday, a Bench of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian handed an order staying the three farm legal guidelines and constituted the committee, saying that talks between the farmers’ our bodies and the Centre have “not yielded any result so far”.
“Though several rounds of negotiations have taken place between the Government of India and the farmers’ bodies, no solution seems to be in sight,” the Supreme Court noticed in its order. “Be that as it may, the negotiations between the farmers’ bodies and the Government have not yielded any result so far. Therefore, we are of the view that the constitution of a committee of experts in the field of agriculture to negotiate between the farmers’ bodies and the Government of India may create a congenial atmosphere and improve the trust and confidence of the farmers.”
On January 4, the seventh spherical of talks remained inconclusive as farmer leaders have been adamant on their demand for repeal of the legal guidelines.
In the December 30 assembly, a consensus had emerged on two contentious points. The two points on which the Centre had conceded to the farm unions’ calls for have been to “decriminalizing” stubble burning by excluding farmers from the ambit of the Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance 2020, and drop these provisions of the draft Electricity Amendment Bill, 2020, that are meant to alter the prevailing mode of subsidy cost to customers.
However, the stalemate continued on two different key calls for of farmers, together with repealing of the three farm legal guidelines and authorized assure of minimal help value.
