New Delhi: Ten central trade unions Monday announced their support to the nation-wide protest September 25 by peasants and farm workers. The nation-wide protests will be to oppose passage of two agri bills in Parliament. The trade union bodies said the BJP government should stop anti-farmers measures.
The joint platform of ‘Central Trade Unions and Sectoral Federations’ declares its unstinted support to the initiative of ‘Joint Platform of Peasants and Agricultural Workers Organisations –the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee’ to hold countrywide protest and resistance on 25th September 2020, the trade unions said in a joint statement. “We will also join them in protesting against the disastrous Electricity Amendment Bill 2020,” the statement said.
The 10 trade unions are NTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.
Two key farm bills have been dubbed as the biggest reform in agriculture by the government. They was passed Sunday by Rajya Sabha with voice vote.
The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 have already been passed by Lok Sabha and will now go to the president for his assent before they are notified as laws.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed it as a ‘watershed moment’ in the history of Indian agriculture. He has asserted that the bills will ensure a complete transformation of the farm sector. The bills will add impetus to the efforts to double the income of farmers.
The Congress and other opposition parties have slammed the bills as ‘death warrants’ of farmers.
