Haryana Congress holds procession against farm laws in Chandigarh, submits memorandum to Governor

Condemning the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for passing ‘anti-farmer’ laws, leaders of Haryana Congress Committee along with party workers and activists held a procession march to the Haryana Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh on Monday.

The procession, led by Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, was however, halted by Chandigarh police before the Haryana Raj Bhawan and a number of protesters including party leaders and workers taken to Police Station, Sector 17, Chandigarh. They were later released on the intervention of Kumari Selja and Vivek Bansal, Incharge, Party Affairs in Haryana, who visited the police station.

A delegation of party leaders including Kumari Selja, Vivek Bansal, Leader of Opposition & former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary and some others, submitted a memorandum to Satyadeo Narain Arya, the Governor of Haryana, condemning the three 'black laws' enacted by the Modi Government. The memorandum has demanded that the President of India should use his good offices to undo the three laws which are endangering the existence of the farmers, labour and Aarhtiyas.

Earlier, the leaders also addressed a meeting of party leaders and workers. Vivek Bansal exhorted the party rank and file to stand as one to implement the directions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to lodge a strong protest against the three ‘black’ Acts. He said that the BJP had passed these laws treacherously and by violating all constitutional norms and was forcing them on the people of the country.

He said that the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee will organize Kisan Sammelans at all the Vidhan Sabha and district headquarters on October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister late Lal Bahadur Shastri. These sammelans will be organized by Congress MLAs, MPs and senior leaders in their respective areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Kumari Selja said that the Congress party has been opposing the Modi Government from the very beginning. The Congress had requested the President not to sign these bills, but to no avail. She said that the MSP regime is the dire need to save the farmers, labourers and commission agents, but the BJP government had deliberately bulldozed the APMS Act. She said that in Bihar the abolition of APMC has resulted in a disastrous situation and the farmers had been reduced to labourers and most of them are going to other states to work as farm-hands.

Hooda demanded that the government should being a bill to guarantee MSP. "In Haryana, contract farming was introduced from 2007 with provisions that no one will purchase farmers produce below the MSP. Ccrops with no MSP should be sold as per the market rate," he said while talking to media persons.

Those who joined the procession included MLAs Kiran Chaudhary and Varun Chaudhry, former state minister Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav, Secretary, AICC Virender Rathore, former MP Sushil Indora, former minister Subhash Batra, former MLAs Anand Singh Dangi and Banta Ram, besides many other party leaders.