Ahead of session, Capt to brief MLAs, hold Cabinet meeting

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 17

Ahead of the daylong special session of the Vidhan Sabha on Monday, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has called a meeting of the party MLAs to brief them on the tough stand being adopted by the state government and the legislation the government was bringing to counter the three Central farm laws.

The meeting would be held ahead of the Cabinet meeting in which the draft of the legislation to be brought in the Assembly would be discussed and approved.

To have a wider view, the Chief Minister today held a marathon meeting with the PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar and Cabinet Ministers Sukhjinder Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, MLA Kuljit Nagra and senior government functionaries. All ministers in a three-hour-long meeting stressed that farmers were looking upon the government with a hope that it would protect their rights. The views of the MLAs are being solicited tomorrow during the CLP meeting before the draft of the action plan is tabled in the Cabinet meeting.

Sources said the Capt Amarinder Singh government is going to adopt a tough stand against the farm Acts so that the voice of farmers echoes in the Assembly.

“The Congress government will do whatever it can to become the voice of the farmers, even if it means putting the government’s future at stake”, said a senior leader. Sources said various options, including the rejection of the Central farm Acts, tabling a resolution against the laws, tweaking the state agriculture laws to neutralise the effect of the Central laws and a legal scrutiny, were being weighed. The option of declaring the entire state as a market yard under the APMC Act seems not be on the priority list of the government.

The state may exploit provisions provided in Article 254(2) that states that if a law made by a state relating to a matter in the Concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament, then the law made by that state can prevail within its territory, provided the President of India gives his assent. Another option is challenging the farm laws in the Supreme Court.