Kerala Legislative Assembly Opposition leader and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Monday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging him to bring in legislation in the state assembly to override the central farm laws.
In the letter, Chennithala has urged the Kerala CM to bring in a resolution against the central government’s farm laws as the first step. “As the Governor has denied permission to convene the assembly, I urge you to bring in a legislation as agriculture is a state subject,” he said in the letter.
The Leader of the Opposition demanded that the cabinet should take immediate action to bring legislation similar to Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
Punjab Assembly on October 20 had passed a resolution rejecting three farm laws enacted by the central government with the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh later leading a delegation to the Governor VP Singh Badnore urging him to give his assent to three bills passed by the assembly.
A Punjab government release had said that the assembly passed Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Chhattisgarh assembly also on October 27 had approved the Chhattisgarh Krishi Upaj Mandi (Amendment) Bill 2020 to negate the center’s farm laws that allowed private players to directly buy agricultural produce from farmers.
The farmers are protesting against The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Meanwhile, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, in a detailed letter said that he did not refuse to accede to the request for convening the special assembly session, but ‘raised some questions’ and instead of replying to it, the Chief Minister ‘chose to bring in extraneous issues’.
In a reply to a letter by Kerala Chief Minister, the Kerala Governor said, “You will agree that as Chief Minister, it is your constitutional duty to keep the Governor fully informed about the decisions of the government and it is my right to be consulted and to counsel the government. But somehow you give information when I raise questions; otherwise, you take shelter behind vague terms, like in the current case, “to discuss some serious issues”.