'Scrap arbitrary farm laws'

New Delhi: The Bhartiya Kisan Union, spearheading the farmers agitation, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to scrap three agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September. The farmers have over the past three weeks been protesting against these laws, demanding the government to repeal them.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union's petition, filed by its president Bhanu Pratap Singh, claimed that the three laws will lead to commercialisation and will throw the farmers at the mercy of corporates. Citing the ongoing farmers' protest along the national capital's borders, it said a "rail roko" agitation, too, would begin soon.

Calling the new laws 'arbitrary', the petition alleges that they were passed without adequate discussion.

The Supreme Court has already issued notices to the Central government on a batch of petitions challenging the farm laws. These laws were first introduced in June as ordinances by the Central government.

The three contentious laws are: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.

Over the past many weeks fierce protests have broken out across states such as Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh by farmers, who view these laws as leading the way to their dis-empowerment, with their advantage moving to corporate bodies.

Thousands of them have sought to march towards Delhi in protest, in the process blocking the major roads leading to and away from the national capital.

Several political parties have voiced their support to the protesting farmers and sought the three laws' repeal, though the government has not budged till now.