Bharat Bandh against agri laws fails to evoke response in Goa

The Bharat Bandh called by farmer unions against the Centres three agri laws failed to evoke any response in Goa so far on Monday, officials said.All services, including the public transport, banks, trains and commercial establishments, were operating normally in the coastal state, a senior police official said.There have been no protests.

The Bharat Bandh called by farmer unions against the Centre's three agri laws failed to evoke any response in Goa so far on Monday, officials said.

All services, including public transport, banks, trains, and commercial establishments, were operating normally in the coastal state, a senior police official said.

"There have been no protests. Life remained normal," he said.

There was no impact of the bandh in the state, he said, adding that enough precautions were taken to prevent any untoward incident during the day.

Meanwhile, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) supported the call for bandh. ''We have not stopped any work, but workers in all the industrial estates held protests for half-an-hour in their respective areas before resuming the work," AITUC Goa unit secretary Suhas Naik said.

He claimed that the demonstrations received a good response from workers. The Bharat Bandh, called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, marks one year since President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three controversial laws and 10 months since thousands of farmers set up camp at Delhi's border points to voice their protest.

The bandh is in effect from 6 am to 4 pm.

The central government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock and end the farmers' protest. Talks have not resumed following widespread violence during a tractor rally by protesting farmers in Delhi on January 26.

The three laws -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020 -- were passed by Parliament in September last year.

Farmer groups have alleged that these laws will end the 'mandi' and the MSP (minimum support price) procurement systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates. The government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced and asserted that these steps will help increase farmer income.