NEW DELHI: All eyes will be on the Supreme Court on Monday when it will hear the Centre’s plea seeking an injunction against the farmers’ tractor march or any protest which seeks to disrupt the Republic Day parade while the SC-appointed panel on the new farm laws will hold its first meeting on January 19, the same day the Centre and farmers are scheduled to hold the 10th round of talks.
“We are meeting on January 19 at the Pusa campus. Only members will meet to decide the future course of action,” Anil Ghanwat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra), said. “One of the four members has backed out of the committee. If the apex court does not appoint a new member, the existing members will continue,” he added.
Bhupinder Singh Mann, national president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann), had recused himself in the wake of allegations that the committee members were ‘pro-government’.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde may also take up on Monday the matter of Mann’s recusal from the four-member committee set up to resolve the impasse.
Ghanwat said the committee has received the terms of reference and will begin its work from January 21.
Parmod Kumar Joshi, Director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, and Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and ex-chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, are the other two members.
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that the three farm laws enacted recently would enable farmers to increase their income manifold, as they will be able to sell their produce anywhere in the country to anyone for the highest price
‘Govt can’t cow down farmers with NIA’
Punjab minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa slammed the Centre for the NIA’s notices to the farm leaders and those supporting them. “The farmer who feeds the nation with blood, sweat and toil cannot be cowed down by empty threats,” said the Congress leader.