The fear of farmers on the streets against the three agricultural laws of the Modi government is not without reason. In May this year, the BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh introduced a Model Agricultural Law to end the system of buying grain on agricultural produce mandis and MSPs. This law left the farmers of the state at the mercy of corporate companies. It has been six months since this law came into force. Its results are now visible. In October, the business came to a standstill in 47 of the 269 mandis in the state. Between June (when the central government brought ordinances for three agricultural laws) and October, the turnover of 143 of these mandis declined by 50 to 60 per cent. These figures are from the state government website e-license. Officials of the Mandi Board say that the remaining 79 mandis are running because of the arrival of fruits and vegetables. Ten out of 47 mandis are in Gwalior. These include seven mandis of Shivpuri as well. Work stopped in September itself. In September, no work was done in six mandis of Indore. Similarly, there were no horse-trading in six mandis of Seoni in Jabalpur that month. In October, no work was done in 15 mandis of Sagar district. There was no work in 14 mandals in Jabalpur and nine in Rewa. These figures also revealed that there are 298 sub-mandis in the state, in which the crops are procured according to season, but in the last six months there has been no business in them and they have reached the verge of closure. The Mandi Board has not been able to pay salaries and pension to its employees for the past several months. The tax collection of the board has also come down by 64% as compared to last year due to decrease in business in mandis. The tax collection of the board was Rs 1200 crore during the financial year 2019-20 (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020). But for six months, since the ordinance came into force, the board has been able to raise only 220 crores from tax. This constitutes only 36 per cent of the tax collected in the same period last year. The Madhya Pradesh State Market Board is an autonomous body. This body follows the rules made under the Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Market Act, 1972. The mandi board charges 1.5% tax from registered traders. Of this, he gives 0.5 percent to the state government. The government uses this fund in development and welfare schemes. With the remaining 1% tax, the board pays salaries and pensions to its employees. Along with this, he also uses this money to develop infrastructure for the mandi. There are 45 thousand registered traders in the state. In this BJP-ruled state, the government reduced the tax on mandis from 0.5 per cent to 0.5 per cent under pressure from agricultural traders. This was another injury on the mandis. They were already in deficit due to new agricultural laws. This new step made his condition even more thin. The new agricultural laws allow private mandis to be opened without any license or fee. Farmers can sell their crops here. Bibi Faujdar, convenor of the United Sangharsh Morcha, Madhya Pradesh Mandi Board, said, “The new laws have eclipsed 190 agricultural produce mandis out of 269 mandis in the state. In the last few months, there has been no tax collection in 47 mandis of B, C, D grades of the state. Ever since the new laws came in, the business of the remaining 143 mandis has also fallen by 50 to 60 per cent.
Apart from this, in 298 sub-mandis working only in the season, there has been no horse-trading in the last six months. These are just on the verge of closure. The seven divisions of Madhya Pradesh have 269 mandis and 298 sub-mandis. It employs 6500 employees. There are 1500 women, 2500 pensioners among these employees. There are about 9000 registered laborers. But new laws have put everyone in trouble. Faujdar has been a former executive passenger (first class officer) of the Mandi Board. He says, “In the year 2019-20, the board collected a tax collection of Rs 1200 crore. Of this, it gave Rs 446 crore to the state government. Apart from this, the board has so far given Rs 1248.64 crore to the government. But by enacting new laws, the state government wants to close it so that traders and corporate houses can benefit. " Thousands of employees of the State Mandi Board protested in the capital Bhopal on October 3 (2020) against the new law of the Madhya Pradesh government. Employees tried to sit on the Vallabh Bhavan against the model mandi bill the state government has brought on the lines of the new agricultural laws of the Center. Gopaldas Aggarwal, chairman of the Grain Cereals Pulses-Oilseeds Merchant Federation Federation in the state, says, "The new law that is made is good for the traders but bad for the farmers and the existing mandis." Traders are now buying grain from outside the mandis. This is the reason why tax collection from state mandis has decreased. " Agarwal says, "Now why would a businessman come to buy a crop in the market after paying a good tax? When he is getting the facility to buy grain outside the market without paying tax and without license, then why will he go to the market to pay tax? The money that the traders had invested to develop the mandi system also went into the water. Now the existence of these mandis is in danger. " Says Aggarwal, "It is now clear that the new law does not provide any protection for the farmers, while the traders have got an open exemption. " No purchase on msp The Shivraj government of Madhya Pradesh and its ministers have been denying the abolition of MSP and the closure of the mandi board. He claims that nothing like this has happened. This is just propaganda. But since June 5, the government has not been able to give evidence in support of its claims. Kedar Sirohi, Harda's farmer leader, says, "Ever since the new agricultural laws came into force, the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh government has not purchased a single crop on the MSP. Be it soyabean (MSAP-Rs. 3,850 per quintal), maize (MSP - Rs. 1,825 per quintal) or moong (MSP - Rs. 7050 per quintal). Every crop is sold outside the mandis at a lower rate than the MSP. " This year the state government has purchased only wheat on the MSP. The price of wheat purchased from March to May was Rs 1925 per quintal. Madhya Pradesh has bought the maximum wheat this year. The state purchased a record wheat of 129 lakh tonnes. It also overtook Punjab this time in wheat procurement. State convenor of All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee (AIKSCC) Badal Saroj said that the government is saying that the mandis are running properly and procurement of crops on MSP is also on. But this is a lie. " He says, "Ever since the new agricultural laws came into force, the state government has neither purchased any crop on MSP nor provided any help to mandis." Saroj says the tax collection of mandis has decreased. The price of crops has fallen. Whether inside or outside the market, crops are selling at half the price of MSP. The government has a record of this. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel are lying to the farmers every day. ". PM Narendra Modi is raising the slogan of 'One Nation, One Market' by bringing new agricultural laws. But CM Chauhan said recently, “I have decided that the government will buy whatever the farmers of the state will grow but if a person from a neighboring state comes here to sell his crop, his truck will be confiscated. He will have to eat jail air ”. Chauhan made this announcement on 3 December at a farmers rally in Nasrullaganj in Sehore district.
Declaration of farmer leader, will intensify conflict United Kisan Morcha, the union of 500 farmers' organizations of the state, has decided to intensify the agitation against the agricultural laws of the Center. Farmers agitating against agricultural laws are strong. The Center said that farmers are being misled. They are agitating on someone's instigation. The Center offered a change in the law but despite five rounds of negotiations, no result was achieved. The Centre's stance has not satisfied the farmers. Therefore, he has declared a Bharat Bandh on 8 December. Shivkumar Sharma 'Kakka Ji', the convener of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (RKMM), is representing the farmers of the state in this movement. He says, “We held five meetings with Union ministers and officials and made our very direct demands. We said that we should abolish all the three agricultural laws brought in haste for the benefit of traders and corporate companies only. Also, make a law declaring the purchase of crops under MSP a crime. ” We will not leave the path of agitation until the government agrees to our demands. We are going to intensify our movement.
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