Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada Youth Congress president Mithun Rai, Congress leaders Praveen Chadra Alva, AC Vinayaraj, and several Youth Congress members were on Friday, September 25, detained by the police for organising a protest rally without first obtaining permission.
The district Youth Congress had held a protest and even attempted to take a rally from the Town Hall in Hampankatta to the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Friday, against the farm Bills that were recently passed in the Parliament.
During the protest, the agitators raised slogans against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central Government. Terming the farm Bills as “anti-farmer”, the protesters claimed that the Bills were being passed to preserve the interests of the corporate “bigwigs”.
Speaking to the reporters on the occasion, Mithun Rai said that it is shameful to note that the Central Government is becoming a “puppet” in the hands of the investors. “The Union Government passed three farm bills without any discussions beforehand, which has severely affected the farmers in the country.”, he said, promising that the Congress party is on the side of the farmers and that they will fight by their side to get justice.
“We condemn the Modi government for snatching away the rights of the farmers,” he added.
It can be recalled that protests broke out all across the country even before the farm Bills were passed by the Parliament. Several farmers’ organisation, unions, associations put aside their differences to come together to protest against the government’s move.
The protests are against three farm reform bills namely The Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, all of which were recently passed by the Parliament.
Although the farmers are protesting against all three Bills, their main contention is against the provisions of the first Bill, specifically the sections relating to “trade area”, “trader”, “dispute resolution” and “market fee”.
