Find a solution: High Court

While hearing the PILs regarding farmers’ march to Delhi, Punjab High Court Judge G.S. A division bench of Justice Sandhawalia and Justice Lupita Banerjee said that the Punjab-Haryana and Delhi governments should work together to resolve the dispute and ensure that people do not face problems due to the agitation. Fixing the hearing for Thursday, the division bench has sought status reports from the Centre, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi governments. Besides, reply has been sought by making two farmer unions also defendants. The High Court said that just as farmers have the fundamental right to protest peacefully, similarly those walking on the road also have fundamental rights. We have to maintain a balance between the two.

State governments can identify the place for the movement and a solution should be found by sitting. Law and order should not be disturbed under any circumstances and use of force should be seen as the last option. During the hearing, the High Court asked the Haryana government that the farmers are passing through your state. They have the right to come and go. Why is the road being blocked? Are farmers agitating in Haryana? On this, the Haryana government said that it has announced a jam 5 kilometers before Delhi. Their objective is to maintain law and order in the state. Punjab government said that we have no objection if the movement is peaceful. On this, the lawyer of Haryana government said that the movement is not peaceful. People are facing problems. Apart from this, if we look at the records, it will be known that mischievous elements are making fun of themselves under the guise of the movement. The first petition has been filed in the High Court by Panchkula lawyer Uday Pratap Singh and the second petition has been filed by Panchkula lawyer Arvind Seth.

Praveen Khandelwal, General Secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAT), the country’s business organization, has said in an interview that the government will take steps to ensure that there is no disruption in the movement of goods coming into Delhi or going out of Delhi due to the farmers’ movement. Make necessary arrangements and it is the responsibility of the farmer to ensure this. Khandelwal says that it is everyone’s democratic right to raise their voice for their issues, but it is also the duty of those who raise their voice to ensure that no one else’s democratic rights are violated by their way of raising their voice. In this context, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAT) said that the traders of Delhi are worried about the way statements are being made regarding the farmers’ movement, but they have confidence in the government that it will not let Delhi’s business be affected due to this movement. . CAT informed Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena has been requested to ensure that the movement of goods in Delhi continues uninterrupted. The businessmen of Delhi are ready to cooperate with the government in this work. Delhi is neither an agricultural state nor an industrial state but Delhi is the largest trade distribution center of the country where goods come to Delhi from different states of the country and goods go from Delhi to all the states of the country. If there is any kind of disruption in the supply chain, it will have an adverse impact on the trade of Delhi and neighboring states. Khandelwal said that many sections are involved in every farming issue, which includes not only consumers but also traders dealing in agricultural food grains, industries and trade engaged in food processing, industries making seeds and pesticides, people making fertilizers and other fertility products, Many sections of people are affected, including wholesalers and retailers, commission agents and big industries related to agriculture, so it is natural for everyone to be worried about their business due to this movement. According to media reports, the Transport Association says that due to this movement of farmers, about 10,000 trucks are currently stuck on the roads. Of these, there are about 6 to 7 thousand trucks which have to supply goods in Delhi. At present, except those supplying essential goods, all other vehicles are being stopped. Transport companies contract with factories and manufacturers to supply goods at a fixed rate. Now transport companies are also facing the fear of penalty if supplies do not arrive on time.

Like the industrialists and businessmen of Delhi, the industrialists and businessmen of Punjab are worried. Goods worth lakhs of rupees are lying in trucks waiting to be taken out, they are worried about what will happen tomorrow. There was an estimated loss of Rs 50,000 crore in the last farmer movement.

The last movement was regarding three agricultural laws made by the Central Government and MSP. The government had withdrawn the agricultural laws and talked about forming a committee regarding MSP, after which the farmer organizations did not give their representatives. The result of mutual differences is that now the farmers’ organizations have divided. Many big faces including the main faces of the first movement, Balveer Veer Singh Rajewal, Dr. Darshan Lal and Joginder Singh Ugraha are keeping distance from this movement. This time the command is with Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh and their associates.

Aam Aadmi Party is in power in Punjab, BJP in Haryana and AAP in Delhi, there is Modi government at the Centre. There is little possibility of mutual coordination between them regarding the movement. Lok Sabha elections may be announced any time in the near future. For this reason, opposition parties are giving unconditional support to Farmers Movement-2. Rahul Gandhi has already announced that if Congress and its allies come to power, they will implement MSP.
Keeping the above facts in front, it can be clearly said that Modi’s opponents are trying to take advantage of the farmers’ march to Delhi. Whereas Modi government is still saying that its doors are open for farmers and it is ready to find a solution through talks.

The agricultural policy of the Modi government can be understood from a recently published book by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in which the success stories of 75 thousand successful farmers of the country have been compiled. This is the story of such farmers who, through their hard work and central schemes, have succeeded in increasing their income by more than double in five-six years. In the year 2013-14, the Central Government had conducted a survey on the condition of farmers. Then the average monthly income of each farmer family was Rs 6,426. On the basis of this, the Center increased the budget of the Agriculture Ministry. Gave the latest technology to the farmers, as a result of which the income of the farmers increased to Rs 10,218 in 2018-19. Monthly increase of about Rs 4,000 in just five years. The priority given to the agriculture sector can be gauged from the fact that the budget of Rs 27,662 crore in 2013-14 was increased almost five times to Rs 1.27 lakh crore in the interim budget of 2024-25. The inter-ministerial committee formed in 2016 to find ways to increase the income of farmers by controlling the cost of farming, in its final report after two years, had emphasized on agricultural policies, reforms and programs. The committee had identified seven sources to increase the income of farmers, which included increasing production productivity through latest technology while controlling costs, animal husbandry along with farming, crop intensification and diversity, remunerative farming along with utilization of additional manpower for non-essential purposes. It was suggested to motivate for agricultural business. The Central Government seriously implemented the committee’s report and set a target of doubling the income of farmers. Work on this was done rapidly and results also came. According to the data, the total procurement at MSP in 2014-15 was 761.40 lakh tonnes for which Rs 1.06 lakh crore was spent. In 2022-23, procurement increased to 1062.69 lakh tonnes on which Rs 2.28 lakh crore was paid.

The main demands of the farmers who marched to Delhi are as follows – apart from legal guarantee for MSP, implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations, pension for farmers and agricultural laborers, farm loan waiver, withdrawal of police cases and relief for the victims of Lakhimpur Kheri violence. They are also demanding justice for. There is also a demand for compensation to the families of the farmers killed during the Delhi agitation and job to one member of the family. There is a demand from farmers to ensure the rights of tribals on water, forests and land.

Most of the above demands seemed to be agreed upon during the recent talks, but the issue got stuck on loan waiver and MSP for all the farmers. These issues cannot be resolved through agitation or threats because they are directly related to the country’s economy. Farmer organizations and their leaders should understand that their solution cannot be done in a hurry; the solution can be found only by sitting together.

The ground truth is that if MSP is implemented on all crops, the government will have to spend Rs 10 lakh crore. Where will this money come from by putting burden on the common people? If this is not done then the Rs 11 lakh crore spent on the country’s infrastructure will be affected, which means the country will come to a standstill. Systems like health, education, security etc. will collapse.

Agriculture comes in the list of states, the states which have governments of opposition parties which are supporting the farmers movement, they also did not accept and implement the demands of the farmers in their states because many of these are impractical and also from the economic point of view. Not possible to implement.

Farmer organizations and their leaders should come on the path of dialogue instead of agitation, in this the solution to the problem will be key. The movement will tarnish the image of farmer organizations and the economic system of Punjab. Farmer leaders should suspend the movement and start dialogue with the government, this is the need of the hour.