Site of last year's farmers' protest near Singhu border
Following a meeting on Monday, the Supreme Court-appointed three-member committee on farm laws informed that they would hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce the fate of the report they submitted in March.
Anil Ghanawat, the Shetkari Sanghatana leader from Maharashtra, met with agriculture economist Ashok Gulati on Monday. The committee- consisting of PK Joshi besides Ghanawat and Gulati- was constituted in January 2021 when the SC stayed the three contentious farm laws. The committee submitted its report in March after a multi-stakeholder consultation. However, the report was never made public. The SC also did not make use of any of its recommendations.
In September, Ghanawat had written to the CJI, requesting to release the report so that the government could employ the recommendations to resolve the protests. The several rounds of talks of the government with the farmers to negotiate failed miserably, and PM Modi eventually announced to repeal the three farm laws in the upcoming winter session.
Ghanawat termed the decision as 'unfortunate'. Gulati, meanwhile, gave a more guarded response and said he would wait for the committee announced by the PM for wider consultation. Modi had announced that a committee comprising representatives of the Centre, state governments, farmers, agriculture scientists and agriculture economists would be composed to discuss how Minimum Support Price (MSP) could be made more effective, how zero budget farming can be promoted and how crop patterns can be changed in a scientific manner.