Stressing that there was nothing wrong with the demands of the protesting farmers, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately repeal the controversial farm laws in order to resolve the crisis. Categorically rejecting “highly irresponsible” reports in a section of the media that Punjab had already implemented the Centre’s new farm laws, the CM said state food minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu’s statement had been “mischievously twisted” by a newspaper, with others picking it up. Punjab was the first state to have opposed the central farm laws and, in fact, passed amendments Bills in the state Assembly to negate their “dangerous impact” on agriculture, Capt Amarinder pointed out, slamming the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for spreading “misinformation” on the issue with their “fake propaganda machinery”. The Governor, said the CM, “should have forwarded our Bills to the President for assent, which he has not done”. Capt Amarinder, in a media interview, made it clear that Punjab would not allow the lives of its farmers to be ruined by the new central agri laws. “We will do whatever possible to help the farmers and their families, for whom the state government had already started two helplines on which they could reach out in case of any emergency,” he said. Urging the Prime Minister to withdraw the controversial farm laws and talk to the farmers agitating against them for months, Capt Amarinder said, “The farmers have made their stand very clear — that the farm laws should be repealed. It is the job of the Government of India to listen to them.” The Centre can bring in new laws after due consultation with the farmers, the CM said, pointing out that the Constitution has been amended many times and could be done again for revocation of the recently enacted farm legislations. Noting that farmers from across the country had joined the protests against the contentious farm laws, Capt Amarinder said that after sixseven rounds of meetings between farmer leaders and the Centre, it is time the matter is resolved and the farmers, who have been camping on Delhi borders amid cold and rains, could go back and everyone else could get on with their lives. The CM lambasted those calling the protesting farmers “Naxals and terrorists”, condemning it as “wrong and irresponsible”.

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