In wake of the farmer protests in the national capital, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that the Trinamool Congress(TMC) is concerned about the well-being of farmers and has given the Centre an ultimatum to withdraw the "anti-farmer bills" or her party will hold nationwide protests.
“I am very much concerned about the farmers, their lives and livelihood. GOI must withdraw the anti-farmer bills. If they do not do so immediately we will agitate throughout the state and the country. From the very start, we have been strongly opposing these anti-farmer bills," wrote Mamata in her tweet.
The West Bengal Chief Minister said that her party has called a meeting on December 4 to discuss "how the Essential Commodities Act is impacting common people and resulting in sky rocketing prices". "The central government must withdraw this anti-people law," she added.
"The GOI is selling everything. You cannot sell Railways, Air India, Coal, BSNL, BHEL, banks, defence, etc. Withdraw ill-conceived disinvestment & privatization policy. We must not allow treasures of our nation to be transformed into BJP party’s personal assets," Mamata further added.
Mamata's comment comes ahead of the talks between the Centre and representatives of agitating farmers in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the agitating farmers have also called a nationwide strike on December 5 against the corporatisation of farming.
(With inputs from Prema Rajaram)
