Returning to Punjab from Delhi border, two farmers killed, 8 injured in accident
According to the police, the accident was caused as the truck driver appeared to have fallen asleep behind the wheel. Updated: December 15, 2020 6:15:42 pm
A group of farmers standing on top of trucks raise slogans during the ongoing protest against the Centers new farm laws, at Singhu border in New Delhi. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
At least two farmers were killed and eight injured early Tuesday morning after a truck hit their tractor-trolley in Haryana’s Karnal district. They were returning to Patiala from the Delhi border, where thousands of farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s three farm laws for 20 days now.
Farm reforms – In India, China
One is the question of whether these
reforms will benefit the farmers or not.This is a question of economics. Broadly speaking, the government’s argument is that opening up the agriculture sector to market forces will not only reduce the stress on government finances but also help farmers by making agriculture more remunerative.
The protesting farmers, however, disagree. They argue that interaction with private players will ruin them financially.
The second aspect is more political and relates to how the laws concerned were legislated. The government believes it has gone through due diligence before turning its ideas into laws. The farmers, on the other hand, stridently criticise the lack of debate before the laws were enacted.
With a variety of winter jackets, for both men and women lying in heaps, Ashraf said the garments, all priced at Rs 400, have been selling like hot cakes since morning.
He added that business has been better than what it usually is at this time of the year at his eight-year-old regular spot in Mangal Bazaar in Jahangirpuri.
Ashraf has brought in enough stock and hopes to sell all of it in “2-4 days”.
Like Ashraf, Sagir Ahmad too has set up his stall at the protest site instead of his regular haunt at a market in Jahangirpuri, hoping to earn a little more than usual, thanks to the thousands of farmers gathered here.
Farmers from Rajasthan and Haryana
started moving towards Delhi on Sunday morning. The Delhi Police had stepped up vigil on the national capital’s border as farmers had planned to block the Jaipur National Highway-8, which passes through Gurgaon. Farmer leaders on Saturday had said that farmers will start the ”Delhi Chalo” march on their tractors from Rajasthan’s Shahjahanpur through the Jaipur highway at 11 am on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Som Parkash met Home Minister Amit Shah, news agency PTI reported. The ministers were accompanied by BJP leaders from Punjab. Tomar and Parkash, along with their ministerial colleague Piyush Goyal, had led the government’s negotiations with the protesting farmers.
The primary cause for concern is the systematic dismantling of the APMC mandis which have stood the test of time and have provided farmers the remuneration to keep themselves afloat. The farm laws open the field to an alternate set of markets/private yards, where the buyer will have no statutory obligation to pay the minimum support price (MSP). Since the said markets/private yards will not be charged any market fee/levy; the agricultural sector will see the gradual shifting of trade from the APMC mandis to these private yards. It is necessary to indicate that the market fee collected by the APMC mandis is used for development of rural infrastructure, link roads and storage facilities. The shifting of trade to avoid payment of any levy/market fee by private players and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will eventually witness the redundancy of the APMC mandis, leaving the famers at the mercy of the corporate sharks.