File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach out to farmers today through his monthly radio programme, 'Mann Ki Baat', for which he has sought suggestions and inputs from them.
"On March 22, I will have 'Mann ki Baat' with my farmer brothers and sisters... I want to know the issues of the farmers and want them to write to me," the PM had said in a series of tweets.
The radio programme will air on All India Radio at 11 am.
PM Modi's address to farmers assumes significance as the agriculture community was a subject of debate in the context of the new Land Acquisition Bill in Parliament.
The land bill, which seeks to amend the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, has come under severe criticism from various parties, which contend that it will hurt farmers' interests. The government, on the other hand, insists that the interests of farmers have been taken care of in the new bill, which seeks to speed up developmental works.
The bill sailed through the Lok Sabha or Lower House, where the government has a big majority, but is yet to be presented in the Rajya Sabha in the face of the Congress-led opposition's firm rejection of it as "anti-farmer".
While passing the bill in the Lower House the government introduced nine amendments to placate critics and get opposition parties on board, but it has failed to do so. On Tuesday, 14 parties marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in protest against the land bill.
Faced with such opposition, the government has not introduced the bill passed by Lok Sabha in the upper house as it fears that the united Opposition will send the bill to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny thus blocking its immediate passage.
The government is minority in the Rajya Sabha and needs the help of other parties to pass legislation.
The Parliament closed on Friday for a month-long recess in the Budget Session. The ordinance or emergency executive order that the bill seeks to ratify, lapses on April 5, during the recess.