Centre and farmers must find middle ground: SC panel member

The new farm laws are not perfect and need “certain corrections”, but the protesting farmers and the government need to first come to a middle ground to resolve the impasse over the issue, Shetkari Sanghatana president Anil Ghanwat said.

Ghanwat, who is part of a three-member committee set up by the Supreme Court to look into the farm laws, said the farmers protesting against these laws could be influenced by vested interests and political parties.

The panel that also consists of former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices Ashok Gulati and International Food Policy Research Institute’s Pramod Kumar Joshi has already submitted its report to the Supreme Court.


“We have done our job and submitted the report, now it’s up to the Supreme Court. I believe that the report would be made public after a month’s time,” Ghanwat told ET.

“We have received a number of suggestions and our recommendations are on the basis of what the majority has said,” he said.

He declined to talk about what the recommendations were but said that they had suggested “major reforms”.

Ghanwat said there was a lot of “misinformation” over the three farm laws among the protesting farmers and once their report was made public, he would go and meet the protesting farmers in Delhi.

“Many states have already allowed farm produce to be sold outside APMCs and even contract farming has been allowed. There may be some vested interested who are influencing the farmers and some who would be trying to derive their political strength through the farmers,” he said.

He added: “I cannot comment as a panel member, however our organisation (Shetkari Sanghatana) has held the opinion that while the farm laws are a good step, they will not serve any purpose to the farmer unless changes are made to these laws.”