President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday signed the Bill to cancel the three farm laws that have faced protests from farmers across the country for a year, NDTV reported.

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

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19 had announced the decision to repeal the farm laws during the Winter Session of the Parliament.

On Monday, the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, was cleared in less than five minutes in the Rajya Sabha. On the same day, the Bill was also passed in Lok Sabha within minutes after Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar introduced it.

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The lack of discussion in both the Houses on the Bill had elicited strong reactions from the members of the Opposition parties. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that lack of debate on the Bill showed that the government understood its wrongdoings.

He also claimed that the government, by passing the Bill quickly, denied them the opportunity to discuss the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the deaths of 700 farmers during the agitation.

Compensation to farmers’ families has featured on the list of demands made by Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmers’ organisations, to the Centre.

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Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Centre said it had no record of the number of farmers who died during the protest against the farm laws. Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar, during the Winter Session of the Parliament, said “question does not arise” on providing compensation to the families as there were no records.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the farmers’ organisations condemned the Centre’s denial of compensation and the lack of response to the pending demands, like a minimum support price for their crops.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha said that the protests around Delhi – which have raged for a year – will continue until their demands were fulfilled.