Farmers’ Protest: PM Modi announces to repeal farm laws, urges farmers to return home

NEW DELHI: In a massive development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on today repealed the three controversial farm laws. He further urged the agitating farmers to return home and start afresh.

While addressing the nation, PM Modi said, "Today I want to tell everyone that we have decided to repeal  all three farm laws.”

He highlighted that his government has been committed to the welfare of farmers. 

"The government has worked for the benefit of small farmers, who do not have more than 2 hectares of land to their name," Modi said as he listed various schemes launched by the BJP government over the past few years to help double farmers' income. 

“We also transferred Rs 1.62 lakh crore directly to their bank accounts," the prime minister said. 

The prime minister extended his greetings to all on the occasion of Dev Deepawali and Prakash Parv.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several border points of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding a repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.