Withdrawal of farm laws hailed

Visakhapatnam Several organisations including YSR Congress Party, CPI and CPI (M) and All India Insurance Employees' Association (AIIEA) on Friday welcomed the announcement of repeal of the three contentious farm laws by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation.

The Prime Minister said that the process of repeal of these laws will be undertaken in the winter session of Parliament set to begin on November 29.

The farmers organised under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha had been protesting against these three farm laws. "These laws were seen by them as steps towards corporatisation of agriculture. There were genuine fears that such a measure would not only place the farmers at the mercy of big corporations but would also deprive them of their livelihood," AIIEA general secretary Srikanth Mishra said.

He said the farmers were also aggrieved that these laws were framed without any consultation with the farming community and pushed through the Parliament without any discussion. The country has witnessed large scale protests against these laws for the last one year, he said adding such a long drawn protest involving a very large section of the people raised questions over democracy as people's involvement in governance. In the last one year hundreds of lives were lost and economy impacted badly.

Had the government shown some flexibility, the issue could have been resolved much earlier avoiding the loss of precious lives, Mishra opined.