Congress To Oppose Agriculture, Banking Ordinances In Parliament

New Delhi: In the wake of agitation by farmers in Haryana and Punjab, the Congress said on Sunday that it will oppose Bills the government plans to introduce regarding the ordinances on agri-marketing and banking regulations in Parliament's Monsoon Session.

The Congress has already talked to like-minded parties to oppose these ordinances and also plans to raise the issue of Chinese incursion at LAC in Ladakh.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Chief Whip of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, said: "The party will oppose the four ordinances -- three on agri-marketing and one related to banking regulations amendment."

The Congress leader claimed that the the banking regulations will weaken the cooperative banking system.

"We are totally opposing the three ordinances -- two on agri-marketing and one on essential commodities," Jairam added.

The Chief Ministers of Punjab and Chhattisgarh have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against these ordinances whereas the Punjab Assembly had even passed a resolution against these ordinances, he said.

The Congress pointed that the revenues of agri-dominant states will be negatively affected by these three ordinances whereas private companies will benefit through corporate farming.

"We will not allow this attack on our food security pillars," said Jairam.

The MSP regime is sought to be eliminated as well as the public procurement system, the Congress leader claimed.

The Opposition parties had a broad understanding on opposing the four ordinances, which the Congress has decided to question vehemently.

The three farm-related ordinances are based on a report by the committee headed by BJP's Shanta Kumar in January 2015.

The opposition has decided to jointly oppose the Banking Regulation Act (Amendment) Bill which Jairam said was against the states and the Constitution.

He said that the Congress will support the 30 per cent cut in salaries of MPs but oppose the suspension of the MPLAD funds, while questioning the "wasteful" Central Vista project.

Jairam said that the party members will support the Taxation Amendment Bill, but oppose a provision for exemption of PM-CARES from tax net.

The Congress objected to non-audit of PM-CARES funds and alleged that even Chinese companies had contributed to it, and demanded transparency in the matter.

The party will support the bill to replace the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.