The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Bill to repeal the three farm laws, PTI reported.

“Today we completed the formalities to repeal the laws,” Union minister Anurag Thakur said at a press conference after a meeting of the Cabinet. “In the upcoming session [of Parliament], it will be our priority to repeal the three farm laws.

The Winter Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin from November 29.

The Bill to repeal the laws is among 26 other Bills on the government’s agenda to be taken up during the Winter Session, reported ANI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the repeal of the three laws on November 19.

However, farmers’ unions said that they will continue to hold agitations at the borders of Delhi till the farm laws are revoked in Parliament.

They have also said that several other demands are pending, including a law to guarantee minimum support price for crops, withdrawing cases lodged against protestors during the agitation and resignation of Union minister Ajay Mishra, whose son has been arrested for allegedly running over farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

Responding to Modi’s November 19 speech, the Opposition had pointed out that the announcement to withdraw the laws came ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year. Farmers from the two states have been at the forefront of the agitation.

“What cannot be achieved by democratic protests can be achieved by the fear of impending elections,” Congress leader P Chidambaram had tweeted. “PM’s announcement on the withdrawal of the three farm laws is not inspired by a change of policy or a change of heart. It is impelled by fear of elections.”

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Farm laws

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at Delhi’s border entry points since November 2020, seeking the withdrawal of the farm laws.

The farmers expressed fear that the central government’s new laws would make them vulnerable to corporate exploitation and dismantle the minimum support price regime.

The Centre, however, had claimed that the laws would give farmers more access to markets and boost production through private investment.

In January, nearly two months into the protest movement, the Supreme Court suspended the implementation of the farm laws. It instead set up a committee and tasked it to consult stakeholders and assess the impact of the laws.

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