New agricultural laws will be transformational for farmers: PM Modi

During his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the agricultural laws, saying the “new rights” given to farmers have begun to ameliorate the woes of our farmers in a short span of time.

The comments came even as farmers stayed put at the Singhu and Tikri border points of the national capital for the fourth consecutive day. “The agricultural reforms in the past few days have opened new doors of possibilities for our farmers.

The demands that have been made by farmers for years, that every political party, at some point or the other, made the promise to fulfill, those demands have been met. After a lot of deliberation, Parliament gave a legal form to the agricultural reforms. These reforms have not only served to unshackle our farmers but also given them new rights and opportunities,” the PM said.


He cited the example of Jitendra Bhoiji, a farmer from Dhule district in Maharashtra, who sold his corn produce to traders for 3 lakh but did not receive an outstanding amount of 2.75 lakh within 15 days. “Buy the crop from the farmer and keep the payment pending for months on end — probably this was the long-standing tradition that the buyers of corn were following. This continued for four months wherein Jitendra was not paid his dues.

In this situation, the new farm laws that were passed in September came to his aid. Under this law, it was decided that all dues of farmers should be cleared within three days of procurement, failing which the farmer can lodge a complaint. Another notable aspect of this law is that the area sub-divisional magistrate has to ensure grievance redressal within one month. Now, with our farmer brother empowered with this law, his grievance had to be redressed; consequently, he lodged a complaint and within days his outstanding payments were cleared,” the prime minister said.

PM Modi said such correct and complete knowledge of the law became the strength of Jitendra. “Whichever the field, correct knowledge, free from misconceptions and rumors can act as a force multiplier for every individual,” the PM said. He also cited examples of Mohammad Aslam from Baran district in who is the CEO of a farmer producer organisation and has made a WhatsApp group comprising several farmers from his area.