AMN / WEB DESK
Two Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) MLAs today joined protests of farmers, who are opposing the Centre’s farm Bills in Haryana.
JJP is part of the ruling alliance in the state with BJP, with its senior leader Dushyant Chautala being the deputy chief minister.
Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag and Shahabad MLA Ram Karan Kala joined protesting farmers and assured them of their support. Sihag went to a protest near Sarsod village of Hisar district, where farmers were blocking the national highway which connects Hisar to Chandigarh. Sihag’s constituency is dominated by farmers. “If people of my constituency ask me to resign, I am ready for the same,” he told media persons.
The Barwala MLA further said that earlier, he too used to think the Bills are pro-farmer. “But then I studied the three proposed laws. For the time being, the Bills should be withdrawn,” said the first-time legislator, adding that he would raise the matter at the party meeting.
In the current system, the arhtiyas (commission agents at mandis) purchase crops from farmers for government procurement agencies in lieu of a fixed commission from the government. According to Sihag, the mandi system won’t survive after the introduction of new laws with “big capitalists purchasing most of the food grains”..
