APMCs not shut, but sell produce wherever you get fair price: Yediyurappa to farmers

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 28 (ANI): Invoking his lineage to a farmer's family, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday requested the protesting farmers to wait for another six months to a year and see how the new Farm Acts help them in long run.
"Being a farmer's son, I am on the farmers' side. The Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) have not been closed. The farmers can sell their produce here or wherever they get a fair price as it's their crop, their right. They can sell their agricultural produce anywhere in India," explained the chief minister.
The Karnataka farmers are not just protesting the recently enacted laws -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, but also the amendments by the state government to the APMC Act and Land Reforms Act.
Yediyurappa clarified that the amendments were made after a long discussion.
"I tried speaking to the leaders of farmers' associations at Vidhana Soudha a few days back but they were not willing to discuss the amendments. They had already decided to protest," he said, adding these amendments were made after long discussions.
On Monday, Karnataka observed a bandh against the new farm laws, besides amendments to the Land Reforms Act and the APMC Act by the state government, during which the Congress held a protest at the party headquarters in Bengaluru.
The three contentious Farm Bills, passed by Parliament in the recently-concluded Monsoon Session, became Acts after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to them on Sunday. (ANI)