Accusing the Prime Minister of telling lies, Chhattisgarh Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey on Thursday said that the new farm bills passed by Parliament will help corporates to exploit corporate farming.

There is no mention of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in the bill and now corporates can open private mandis, he told the media, adding that restrictions have been lifted on the essential commodities.

These are the reasons for opposing the bills, he said.

Recalling the role of successive Prime Ministers in building the agriculture sector, he said India could feed its own population after subsidy was brought in to support farmers.

He said that considering the state of courts now,      farmers will be unable to fight for payments legally as cases will take years to conclude.

Choubey pointed out that the bills will promote black marketing and there will be no control mechanism to control the price for consumers. The BJP government will break the backbone of the country through these bills.

He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling lies. Chhattisgarh farmers are already exporting tomato to Pakistan and Bangladesh and rice to Gulf countries. Last year the paddy production was 1.25 lakh tonnes which in the current Kharif season will reach 1.50 lakh tonnes.

With the opening up of the market, paddy from neighbouring states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and others will flood Chhattisgarh. This will have a direct impact on local farmers, he said, leading to economic slavery.