News Analysis India

Tag: Som Parkash

  • Agri laws: Protesting farmers show black flags to Union minister Som Parkash in Hoshiarpur

    By PTI
    HOSHIARPUR: A group of farmers, protesting against the three agri laws which were enacted last year, on Thursday showed black flags to Union Minister Som Parkash when his cavalcade was passing through Chabbewal here in Punjab.

    Some of them even tried to stop his vehicle but police personnel prevented their attempt to do so.

    Earlier, the protesters carrying black flags, led by their leader Gurdeep Singh Khun Khun, burnt an effigy of Parkash at the PWD Rest House Chowk before his arrival.

    They had held the demonstration against the Centre for “ignoring” their demand of repealing the three farm laws, which were enacted in September last year, and also raised slogans such as ‘Som Parkash Go Back’.

    Farmers have been protesting against BJP leaders in Punjab and Haryana over the issue of the farm legislations, and those demonstrating at Delhi’s borders since November, demanding the repeal of the laws, will marks seven months of their agitation on June 26.

    Earlier, addressing the media here, the Union minister of state for commerce and industry announced various development works worth Rs 3,442 crore for Hoshiarpur district.

    Parkash said the Hoshiarpur-Phagwara road and the new ring road surrounding Hoshiarpur city would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,442.82 crore.

    The total length of this road is 47.50 kms and it would be completed within the next one-and-a-half year.

    The land acquisition work would be started soon and work on this project would begin in November, he stated.

    The minister said that Rs 27 crore would be spent on expanding the Hoshiarpur Railway Station and for this, a tender has already been called.

    The work on this project would be started after opening of the tenders on June 30.

    Parkash said a four-lane Ghuman (Gurdaspur)-Tanda road and Hoshiarpur-Una road would also be constructed at costs of Rs 744 crore and Rs 515 crore respectively.

    He said the Union government has released 60 per cent of its share for constructing a medical college in Hoshiarpur.

    The work on this project would be started after release of 40 per cent share by the state government, the minister said.

  • Farmers try to gherao union minister Som Parkash in Hoshiarpur, cops foil their attempt

    By PTI
    HOSHIARPUR: Protesting farmers Sunday tried to gherao Union minister Som Parkash at the BJP office in Shastri Nagar here where he was present with senior leader Tikshan Sud and other party workers for a meeting, but the police thwarted their attempt.

    The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry had gone to the local BJP office to attend a party meeting.

    When the farmers protesting against the three central agriculture-related laws came to know that the union minister was present at the BJP officer, they headed there to gherao him, but were stopped at three points by the police.

    Some of the farmers tried to break the barricades at the Red Road, but the police personnel deployed there foiled their attempt, police said.

    Farmers then raised slogans against the Central government and the minister, who is also the MP from Hoshiarpur.

    Parkash remained in the party office for about two hours and then left under heavy police protection.

    Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against the BJP leaders to register their disapproval of the three new farm laws, which the Centre says will be beneficial for them.

  • What can be bigger offer than suspending farm laws for 18 months: Union Minister Som Parkash

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Union Minister Som Parkash on Sunday said the government is ready for talks with the agitating farmers and asked whether there can be an offer bigger than suspending the contentious agriculture laws for 18 months.

    He said the government was making sincere efforts to resolve the issue.

    “The government is ready for talks,” Parkash said addressing a press conference here.

    “We offered to suspend the laws for one-and-half years and constitute a committee with farmers’ representatives on these laws. What can be a bigger offer than this?” he added.

    His statement comes a day after protesting farmer unions said they were ready to resume talks with the government, but asked it to come up with a fresh proposal as the existing offer to put the three farm laws on hold for 12-18 months is not acceptable to them.

    Parkash, the Union minister of state for Commerce, was part of the three-member ministerial team which held several rounds of negotiations with the farmers’ leaders.

    Parkash, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency, said the farm legislations were passed by Parliament and a due process was followed.

    “The law is not framed by raising hands. There is a system in the country,” he added.

    The union minister said the government enacted the laws keeping in view the interest of the whole country.

    Thousands of farmers have been protesting since late November at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

    They have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

    To a question on the upcoming municipal polls in Punjab, Parkash said the farmers’ agitation should not be linked with the elections.

    The government had brought these laws in the interest of the farming community, he said.

    The minister slammed the ruling Congress in Punjab, accusing it of ‘orchestrating’ the protest against the BJP leaders in the state.

    “The police is acting at the behest of the state government,” he alleged.

    A group of farmers in Hoshiarpur on Saturday had shouted slogans against the BJP outside a venue where party leaders, including Parkash, had come for a public meeting.

    Elections to the eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the state will be held on February 14.

  • Union ministers start 11th round of talks with protesting farmer unions over new laws

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The eleventh round of talks between protesting farmer unions and three central ministers got underway here on Friday to break the nearly two-month-long deadlock on the three new agri laws. In the last round of meeting held on Wednesday, the government yielded some ground in its bid to end the farmers’ protest on various border points of the national capital.

    The Centre had offered to put on hold the three laws for 12-18 months and also set up a joint committee to find solutions. However, the farmer unions on Thursday rejected the government’s offer and remained stuck to their two major demand — repeal of three farm laws and legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP).

    Farmers group said they will continue protest and also hold tractor rally on January 26, the Republic Day.

    Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash are holding the talks with the representatives of 41 farmer unions at the Vigyan Bhawan here.

    “In a full general body meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha…, the proposal put forth by the government…was rejected. A full repeal of three central farm acts and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement,” Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting unions, had said in a statement on Thursday.

    Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws.

    Farmer groups have alleged these laws will end the mandi and MSP procurement systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, even as the government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced.

    On January 11, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse. Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann had recused himself from the committee appointed by the apex court.

    Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra) president Anil Ghanwat and agriculture economists Pramod Kumar Joshi and Ashok Gulati, the other three members on the panel, started the consultation process with stakeholders on Thursday.