Can't awake someone who pretends to sleep: Patel on farm stir

Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Kamal Patel on Monday said farmers staging a protest on Delhi borders against the Centre's new Agri laws have rejected pleas to end their stir as they are ''enacting a drama to sleep'' and it is not possible to ''awake'' such persons. Patel's comments came in the backdrop of the agitating farmers ignoring repeated pleas by the Centre to end theirs over a month-long stir and on a day when another round of talks between the two sides ended inconclusively in New Delhi.

''They (agitators) are not listening to us as we can awake a person who is actually sleeping, but not the one who is enacting a drama to sleep, he told reporters. The minister was asked about the reasons behind farmers staging protests despite severe cold and rains, and no outcome in talks with the central government on the issue of the new agriculture laws.

The senior BJP leader claimed that most farmers in the country are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the three new agri-marketing laws, which are being opposed by a section of cultivators. Patel insisted that with the implementation of the new laws, farmers will get liberated from the clutches of middlemen and their income will also increase as they will get better prices for their crops.

Targeting the Congress, Patel said ''Farmers are being misled on a false premise that through these new laws, the agriculture sector will be handed over to industrialists. He said for encouraging an agri-based economy, 626 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) will be constituted in the state.

FPO is a group of farmers that runs several commercial agriculture activities along with producing crops.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)