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Government has maintained that a number of consultations have been held with farmers earlier than passing the payments
New Delhi:
Despite the centre repeatedly stating that it held a number of consultations with ‘stakeholders’ earlier than passing the three controversial farm legal guidelines, a response to a RTI question filed by NDTV says the federal government “does not hold any record in this matter”.
The Narendra Modi authorities has been criticised – by the opposition and farmer teams protesting the brand new legal guidelines – for not holding sufficient consultations earlier than the payments have been handed.
However, the federal government insists that it held a number of rounds of discussions with farmers.
On Monday Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar took half in a Facebook Live occasion, during which he stated: “these laws have been discussed in the country for a very long time… many committees were set up which then conducted many consultations across the country”.
Earlier this month Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad stated “extensive consultations, trainings and outreach programmes (were) conducted on the Agriculture Laws with stakeholders”. He stated “1.37 lakh webinars and trainings” had been held since June and 92.42 lakh farmers had participated.
Similarly, a word from authorities sources tried to debunk the “perception the central government has not done extensive outreach and consultations with farmers and their representatives”.
“Feedback was also obtained from few progressive farmers and knowledgeable mandi officials. There were multiple meetings with FPOs (farmer producer organisations) through video conferences. The ministry also consulted a prominent farmers’ union and even did a change in the ordinance after their feedback,” the word declared.
The response to NDTV’s RTI question, nonetheless, casts critical doubts over the veracity of those claims.
NDTV filed the question with the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmer’s Welfare, on December 15 and requested for particulars of consultations, if any, with farmer teams on the three legal guidelines.
NDTV requested if the federal government had held any session with farmer teams earlier than the payments have been made into legal guidelines. NDTV additionally requested for particulars of those conferences, together with date, names of farmer representatives who attended, the teams to which they have been affiliated, and particulars of different attendees. NDTV additionally requested a duplicate of the minutes of those conferences.
On December 22 we obtained a response from the Chief Public Information Officer, saying the federal government “does not hold any record in this matter” and that the request had been closed.
NDTV has since filed an attraction, citing a number of situations of union ministers claiming consultations.
Tens of 1000’s of farmers throughout the nation are up in arms over legal guidelines they are saying will go away them on the mercy of corporates and endanger their livelihoods. Thousands of them have been camped out round Delhi borders for over a month, demanding the legal guidelines be scrapped.
At least 30 deaths have been reported because the protests started final month; a number of of those, the farmers say, are from the winter chill as they’re camped outside with minimal heating at night time.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed, with neither aspect prepared to budge. The authorities says it is not going to roll again the legal guidelines and is barely prepared to amend the extra problematic sections.
Farmers and the federal government will meet for a sixth spherical at 2 pm Wednesday, however have warned that they’ll solely talk about sure points, together with modalities for repeal of the legal guidelines and offering authorized ensures for MSP.
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