PATNA: On the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh on Wednesday, the Rastriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar launched a movement in support of the farmers protesting against the three Central farm farms enacted in September.
"We have to stand by our farmers to prevent them from becoming beggars. The Nitish Kumar government had abolished the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in 2006. As a result, the farmers are unable to find markets for their produce. Hence they are selling their crops through middle men below the minimum support price (MSP). Famers are becoming labourers and if we do not oppose the black farm laws, they will turn into beggars as the corporates will grab their lands," said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
"The Central government has promised to double the income of the farmers by 2022. I want to ask the Narendra Modi government that how could it double the income if the farmers are not getting MSP for their produce? I strongly appeal to Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi to legalise MSP of crops," Tejashwi said.
"We have repeatedly asked them as to how helpful has the removal of the APMC system been for the farmers. But they have now answer to it," he said. (IANS)