CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the Union Government’s draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing, stating that it is an attempt to reintroduce the three farm laws repealed by the Centre in 2020-21 after widespread farmer protests.The policy was unanimously rejected by the House in the Vidhan Sabha, with MLAs from across all parties rejecting it. The two BJP MLAs, Ashwani Sharma and Jangi Lal Mahajan, were not present during the two-hour discussion on the policy.Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led the charge against the Centre over the latter’s alleged anti-farmer policies during the discussion on the resolution brought by the state’s Aam Aadmi Party government to reject the Draft National Policy on Agricultural Marketing.Introducing the resolution, state agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, “The House rejects the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing. The House feels that this draft policy is an attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farm laws repealed in 2021 by the Government of India after a long protest by farmers.””The House feels since this issue is a state subject, according to the Constitution, the Centre should not come up with any such policy and should leave it to the wisdom of the states to frame suitable policies on the subject according to its concerns and requirements,” he added.Speaking on the resolution, CM Mann said that the central government wants to replicate the three controversial farm laws through other means.“Be it the issue of rural development fund (RDF) or any other issue concerning the state, the Centre does not leave any issue to target Punjab. The most recent example is the issue of Indians being deported from the US. Even though few Punjabis were among the deportees, the US military planes were made to land at Amritsar so that only Punjab’s name gets tarnished,” CM Mann said.
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