New agri laws will leave farmers at mercy of big corporates: TMC

The Trinamool Congress on Thursday claimed that the new agriculture laws will leave small and marginal farmers at the mercy of big corporates and demanded that the legislation should be immediately repealed.

Prices of vegetables such as potatoes and onions have skyrocketed as these have been taken off the essential commodities list, the party's Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, adding that the concept of Minimum Support Price (MSP) has been totally bypassed.

The way the Centre hurriedly passed the farm laws through an ordinance without going for a parliamentary debate clearly shows that the Union government is anti-farmer and anti-people, she told reporters here.

"Farmers will now be forced to sell their produce to big corporates at prices dictated by the firms. In case of a crop failure, however, these companies are not bound to buy the produce from the agriculturists," the MP said.

She claimed that the West Bengal government, on the other hand, has always been with the farmers and Kisan Credit Cards have been provided to them.

The new farm laws are unconstitutional and show that the Centre's responsibility is towards the corporates and not the people of the country, she added.