Thrissur: The Kerala government will move the Supreme Court against the three agri-marketing related laws which have triggered a nation-wide farmers' protest, state minister for agriculture V S Sunilkumar said here on Monday.
The minister said Kerala will not implement the laws at any cost.
The state government has directed the advocate general to explore the options of filing a case against all the three controversial laws, the minister told reporters at the Press Club here.
Some states, including the Congress-led Rajasthan, has already moved the apex court against the laws already. The Kerala government is yet to take a decision on whether to join thee cases as a party or to file a fresh suit. The advocate general has been asked to provide the necessary legal advice on this, the minister said.
Earlier, the agriculture department had handed oer the files relating to the laws to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to take a policy decision on the matter.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at various border points of Delhi for 12 days against the new farm laws.
Opposition parties, including many regional outfits, have come out in strong support of the Bharat Bandh' on December 8 called by the agitating farmer unions demanding the repeal of the new laws.
Prominent leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, DMK chief M K Stalin and PAGD chairman Farooq Abdullah also issued a joint statement backing the proposed day-long strike and pressed the Centre to meet the legitimate demands of the protesters.
After five rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmer unions failed to end the impasse, the two sides are again set to meet on December 9, a day after the countrywide strike.
The three farm laws enacted in September have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.
However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandis, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. The Centre has repeatedly asserted that these mechanisms will remain.