Arhtiyas from all over Punjab met cabinet minister Vijay Inder Singla

Sangrur : The Arhtiya Associations of Punjab, on Sunday, reposed their faith in the leadership of School Education and Public Works Minister Punjab Vijay Inder Singla. Leaders of the Association called upon Singla at his residence in Sangrur, and passed a resolution condemning the drastic farm bills being pushed by the union government.Terming the new farm bills as death warrant of the arhtiyas, the community leaders attending the meeting said that they will launch massive protests under the leadership of Vijay Inder Singla to vehemently oppose these legislations.The Arhtiya community appealed the Prime Minister Modi through the resolution to revoke the new bills as they have changed definition of “trade area”, “traders” and “dispute resolution” which will be a death knell to the traditional Anaj Mandi system.
The resolution accuses the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be hand in glove with the corporate sector who seems eager to annex the fertile farmlands of peasants and demolish traditional agro- economy for their profit maximization. The new farm bills also introduce the corporate aliens to the farm markets that need expertise to ensure large scale crop procurement in record time.The resolution has also expressed apprehensions that the 7 lakh people including 28 thousand licensed arhtiyas, their clerks, labors spread across 1860 Anaj Mandis in Punjab will be rendered jobless if the bill is pushed in its current form.The new set of bills allow the crop procurement activity to take place any where ie. in farm field, storage house of the farmer, factory premises, warehouses, silos, cold storages, farm gates or any other structures or place in the territory of India. In absence of quality monitoring mechanism, both the consumer and the farmers are bound to suffer.