Mumbai: The Congress on Friday held protests in Maharashtra against the new farm sector laws, demanding their repeal. The party also launched a signature campaign against what it termed as “black laws”.
On the occasion of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Congress observed a `Kisan Mazdoor Bachao Din’ (Save Farmers and Labourers Day) and staged protests, it said in a statement. State Congress chief and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat demanded that the BJP government at the Centre roll back these laws as “they are a ploy to enslave farmers”.
Thorat led a protest at Lasalgaon in Nashik district. He said the party would submit a memorandum to the President through Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with signatures of two crore farmers demanding immediate revocation of anti- farmer laws.
He alleged that the Union government wants to dismantle Agriculture Produce Market Committees and minimum support price system and help certain industrialists by promoting contract farming. In Nanded, Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan led a bullock cart march against the laws.
These laws were passed in Parliament with a “dictatorial attitude that we can make laws as we wish”, he alleged. In Mumbai, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh, Textiles Minister Aslam Sheikh and city Congress president Eknath Gaikwad staged protests.
MP Rajiv Satav, state ministers Yashomati Thakur, Sunil Kedar, K C Padvi, Vijay Wadettiwar, SatejPatil and Vishwajeet Kadam also led protests in other parts of the state, the party statement said.
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