Lok Sabha Proceedings Washed Out Again Amid Opposition Protest Against Farm Laws

New Delhi: Lok Sabha proceedings were a virtual washout on Friday as relentless protest by Opposition members against the Centre's three farm laws continued for another day.

Lok Sabha was adjourned first till 6 p.m after Opposition members disrupted the proceedings demanding repeal of the laws and shouted slogans from the Well of the House.

As soon as the House convened at 4 p.m, members from the Congress, Left parties and DMK rushed to the Well raising slogans against the new laws and holding placards.

Speaker Om Birla continued with the Question Hour with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan responding to supplementary questions on COVID-19 vaccination.

As Opposition members continued to raise slogans, Birla appealed to them to participate in the Question Hour as an important issue related to vaccination was being discussed.

While Congress, DMK and Left members were in the Well, members from the TMC did not participate in raising slogans. Around 4.15 p.m, Birla adjourned the House till 6 p.m.

With no let-up in the protests when the House reconvened in the evening, the Speaker adjourned its proceedings till Monday after his plea to Opposition members to go back to their seats went unheeded.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the government claims increasing the minimum support price for crops and doubling farmers' income, but data suggests otherwise.

Participating in the discussion on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session, Kharge said the schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, mentioned in the President's speech, was actually a "punjipati munafa yojana (a scheme for profit of capitalist)".

Terming the government's claim of doubling farmers' income a "jumla" (rhetoric), the Congress leader said the Narendra Modi dispensation never gave 50%  profit over cost to farmers on agricultural produce.

"When Modi ji became Prime Minister in 2014, within a month on June 12, an order was issued to states that if any state government pays any bonus to the farmers above the MSP (minimum support price), then it would stop procurement on MSP from that particular state," he claimed.

Terming it a "shoshonkari aadesh" (order of exploitation), he said that after this, the state governments stopped granting a bonus to the farmers on MSP.

Taking a jibe at the government, Kharge said, "This was done by you for the welfare of farmers". 

"You have also conspired along with capitalist to capture farmers' land," he alleged.

On the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kharge said, "A premium of Rs 99,073 crore was collected in the name of crop insurance and farmers were given only Rs 26,012 crore."

On the Kisan Samman Nidhi, he said that agricultural cost has gone up by at least Rs 15,000 per hectare whereas the government is giving only Rs 6,000 annually to farmers under the scheme.