The Supreme Court-appointed committee on Farm laws had advised against the repealing of the three contentious farm laws that were rolled back by the Centre last year.
Member of the panel, Anil Ghanwat, said: "Had the Supreme Court published the Committee’s Report upon receipt, it could have educated protesting farmers about the benefits of the farm laws and potentially prevented the repeal of these laws."
The 92-page report was released by Anil Ghanwat, one of the three members of the committee, at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. Two other members of the committee, agricultural economists Ashok Gulati and Dr Parmod Kumar Joshi, were not present on the occasion.
Of all the farm organisations it had talked to, around 86 per cent of them, representing almost 33 million of the farming community, had supported the laws.
“The feedback received by the committee through its online portal established that one-third of the respondents did not support the farm laws and around two-thirds were in their favour. The feedback received through e-mails also shows that a majority supported the farm laws. In view of this feedback, the committee recommends that a repeal or a long suspension would, therefore, be unfair to this ‘silent’ supporters,” said the report.
The panel gave a few options on how to proceed, looking at least 10 years ahead.
“One of the options that the committee deliberated upon is to allocate the current expenditure by the central government on procurement, storage and PDS of wheat and rice across states based on an objective formula giving due weightage to production, procurement and poverty. The states should be given the freedom to devise their own approaches to support farmers and protect poor consumers in their respective states,” the report said.
The committee has recommended that procuring crops at a declared MSP can be the prerogative of the states in accordance with their specific agricultural policy priorities.
