Punjab Vidhan Sabha: MLAs unite to reject Draft National Agriculture policy of Centre

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led the charge against the Centre on Tuesday over the latter's alleged anti-farmer policies, during the discussion on the Resolution brought by the state's Aam Aadmi Party government to reject the Draft National Policy on Agriculture Marketing.

The policy was unanimously rejected by the House in the Vidhan Sabha , with MLAs from across all parties rejecting it.

The two BJP MLAs, Ashwani Sharma and Jangi Lal Mahajan, were not present during the two-hour discussion on the policy.

While rejecting the policy, MLAs from both Treasury and Opposition benches said that bringing a policy on agriculture marketing, which is a state subject, is an interference by the Centre and against the spirit of the Constitution.

The draft policy has also been rejected by the Vidhan Sabha members, saying that the broad spirit of the Policy is to promote private markets and to significantly dilute the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Markets, so as to eventually make them irrelevant.