RSS affiliate BKS suggests 4 amendments to farm laws

New Delhi, Dec 05: RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh proposed on Friday four amendments to the three contentious central farm laws to make it "farmer-friendly" and address the apprehensions that have led to protests.

Thousands of farmers have gathered at Delhi's gateways to demand a repeal of the new farm laws. The protesters are worried the legislations would eliminate the safety cushion of a minimum support price (MSP), while rendering ineffective the wholesale market system that ensures earnings for various stakeholders in the farm sector.

"Instead of scrapping the new laws as some organisations have been demanding, we propose four amendments in these legislations," BKS general secretary Badri Narayan Chaudhary said, adding that it would be enough to address the apprehensions.

The amendments are that there should be no purchasing below the MSP in the wholesale markets or outside, registration of all traders on a government portal that can be accessed by all, payment to the farmers in a stipulated time through bank guarantee and setting up of the agriculture tribunals for resolution of farmers' disputes in their hometown itself.

The BKS welcomed the new laws that it said was a "long-pending demand". Chaudhary said the outfit had been pushing for 'one nation-one market' since long.

The BKS leader said the wholesale markets were introduced with the welfare of farmers in mind and it helped them a lot. "But gradually, it became a means of exploitation of farmers," he said, adding that many organisations had been demanding rectification in the system for a long time.