Make report of SC-appointed panel on farm laws public, appeals committee member

Anil Ghanwat, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on the farm laws, on Tuesday wrote to Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and appealed to release the panel's report.

In his letter, Ghanwat, while requesting the Supreme Court to make the panel's report, said that after the Centre's decision to repeal the farm laws in the coming Winter Session of the Parliament, the Committee's report "can play an educational role and ease the misapprehensions of many farmers about reforms".

Further, Ghanwat said that Sharad Joshi (founder of Shetkari Sanghatana, a Maharashtra-based farmer organisation) would have approved of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's farm laws. While they fell short of Joshi's dream for India, "these laws could have potentially been made to work and improved in the course of time."

"Had the Government consulted with farmers and educated them systematically in advance of making the laws, the outcome would have been quite different," Ghanwat's letter read.

"Sadly, the current approach has allowed some leaders to mislead farmers. Such leaders do not understand the price system and how a minimally regulated free market can allocate national resources to their most productive use. Such leaders are causing enormous national harm, not just to farmers," it further read.

In his letter, Ghanwat also requested the top court to direct the Centre to "develop and implement a robust policy process".

"A robust policy process for making new farm laws would involve establishing a Committee with representation of all views," he said while saying that the Committee would prepare a White Paper that considers costs and benefits of options.

While addressing a press conference on the issue today, Ghanwat said, "We should have a policy that is in the interest of farmers and does not distort the market."

He further added that in the next two-three months, Ghanwat would travel across the country and over one lakh farmers will gather in support of reforms in the agriculture sector.

He reiterated that the demand for a guarantee of the minimum support price is not feasible at the moment.

Indian economy will face a crisis if a law is made for guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops, Ghanwat had said on Monday.

( With inputs from ANI )

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