Prime Minister Modi speaks of benefits the new farm laws have brought to farmers in the country.

As farmers are continuing with their agitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke of the government’s new farm laws and benefits they have brought to the farmers.

“New dimensions are being added to agriculture and its related activities in India. The agricultural reforms in the past few days have also now opened new doors of possibilities for our farmers,” Prime Minister Modi said in his monthly radio programme, ‘Man Ki Baat.’

“After a lot of deliberation, the Parliament of India gave a legal form to the agricultural reforms. These reforms have not only served to unshackle our farmers but also given them new rights and opportunities. In just a short span of time, these new rights have begun to ameliorate the woes of our farmers,” the Prime Minister added.

Giving example in this regard, he spoke of a farmer in Maharashtra’s Dhule who could not receive payments for his crop for four months.

“Buy the crop from the farmer, keep the payment pending for months on end; probably this was the long standing tradition that the buyers of corn were following. This continued for four months wherein Jitendra ji was not paid his dues.

“In this situation, the new farm laws that were passed in September came to his aid. Under this law, it was decided that all dues of the farmers should be cleared within three days of procurement, failing which, the farmer can lodge a complaint,” the Prime Minister said.

Highlighting further the benefits of the new farm laws, he said, “Another notable aspect of this law is that the area Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) has to ensure grievance redressal of the farmer within one month. Now, with our farmer brother empowered with this law, his grievance had to be redressed; consequently, he lodged a complaint and within days his outstanding payments were cleared.”

The Prime Minister also threw lights on stubble burning and solution to it. In this regard, he talked about a farmer from Kaithal in Haryana, whose efforts have shown a new way forward to dealing with stubble problems. The Prime Minister said how the farmer’s effort to procure a Straw Baler machine to make bundles of stubble, has started paying him a huge dividend.

“We have often heard of ‘waste to wealth’, however, this initiative is a unique example of earning money and righteous goodwill while finding a solution to the problem of stubble,” the Prime Minister said.