Budget 2018-19

  Farmers’ protest descended into chaos as they used tractors to pull apart barricades, prompting the police to lathi-charge and fire tear gas. Punjab and Haryana on high alert The farmer groups, protesting along Delhi’s borders against the three farm laws, have adopted a wait-and-watch stand on the violent protests inside the Capital on Republic Day, saying they will dwell into the events once the full picture emerges. However, most farmer leaders condemned the violence and blamed it on miscreants present among the protesters. Some said a stand will be taken once all the leaders come back from their sites and discuss the development. farmers’ protests, police, tear gasA police person fires tear-gas as farmers break barricades near Akshardham Ashish Mittal, general secretary of the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), one of the groups participating in the protest, said, “The route given for the tractor parade was hardly touching Delhi, and therefore, unacceptable to many of us. ...

  Rahul Gandhi says new acts will destroy country’s agriculture; V-P Naidu calls for keeping farmers’ welfare in mind while framing farm policies The members of a panel set up by the Supreme Court to resolve the crisis of farmer protests said on Tuesday they would keep aside their ideology and views while consulting stakeholders, even as they indicated a complete repeal won’t augur well for much-needed agriculture reforms. The panel met for the first time on Tuesday. The biggest challenge, the members said, is to convince the agitating farmers to come and speak with them. “We will try our best. We also want to request those farmers who don’t want to come before us that we are neither from any party nor from the government’s side. We are from the Supreme Court’s side,” said Anil Ghanwat, a member of the panel. Agriculture economist Ashok Gulati and former director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Pramod Kumar Joshi, are the remaining members of the panel....

Officials said while the central government wanted farmers to discuss the three Acts clause by clause, the farmers wanted nothing less than an assurance of total repeal The seventh round of talks between agitating farmers and the central government to resolve the impasse over the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) yet again failed to make headway. Both sides dug in their heels before deciding to reconvene on January 8. Officials said while the central government wanted farmers to discuss the three Acts clause by clause, the farmers wanted nothing less than an assurance of total repeal. The central government in its submission to farmers said the government was willing to discuss the Acts threadbare with farmers from the rest of the country before moving ahead. “The Centre wants the unions to raise specific issues in the three farm laws they have problems with. Both sides need to find a solution. We are hopeful of a solution on January 8. Monday’s talk...

  The govt has again assured farmers that MSP would be maintained, but incorporating it as part of the Acts seems clearly out of the question The central government has assured the agitating farmers that it will incorporate the issues raised by them and come up with concrete proposals to amend the three farm Acts on Wednesday.Addressing a group of reporters after agitating farmers’ meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, Hannah Mollah, the general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, said the central government had said it would come up with a set of amendments to the contentious farm laws for farmer groups to consider. After that, another round of discussions would be held. “As far as my information is concerned, the sixth round of meeting scheduled for tomorrow stands cancelled now, as we will not wait for the Centre’s proposals,” Mollah told reporters. Earlier, Shah held a meeting with agitating  farmers protest  to break the deadlock over the three farm laws, on a da...

  A breakthrough in the farmer unions’ key demand for an assurance on continuation of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) procurement system is also said to be in the works The fourth round of talks between protesting farmers and the Centre on the three agriculture Acts seemed to make some headway, with the government willing to consider some of their objections to the legislation. Their demands include a having level playing field in taxes between proposed private mandis under the new Acts and the existing agriculture produce marketing committees (APMCs), and traders’ mandatory registration even if they trade outside those. Sources said a breakthrough in the key demand of the  farmers union  for an assurance on continuing minimum support prices (MSPs) in procurement was also in the works. In their present form, the agriculture trade Act says that no state or Centre can levy any sort of tax or levy on any trade done outside APMCs (an area which has been designated as trade ar...