Farmers Movement Archive

Centre delaying a solution by leaving it to SC: farmer groups

Farmer outfits from Punjab, including the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), on Saturday said the Centre’s hint of getting the farm laws issue resolved by the Supreme Court was a ploy to prolong the issue in a bid to derail the ongoing agitation. The BKU (Ugrahan), one of the largest outfits in Punjab, and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, the one outfit which is still continuing with a ‘rail roko’ agitation in Amritsar, have asserted that the Centre’s suggestion during the meeting with farmers on January 8 that it would be best to leave the issue surrounding farm laws to the Supreme Court, clearly indicated that it wanted to delay finding a solution. “The suggestion to leave the issue to the Supreme Court indicates that the government wants to delay finding a solution to ongoing dispute. Their intention is only to prolong the issue and not fulfil our demands. The government wants to suppress people’s movement. We have already dismissed the government’s suggestion,” Shingara Singh Mann, State secretary BKU (Ugrahan) told The Hindu . “The government’s intention is very clear. They want to dislodge the ongoing farmers movement by involving the courts,” he said. Mr. Mann said the BKU(U) along with other outfits would stand firm for the complete repeal of the farm laws, besides government procurement of all crops and in all the States at Minimum Support Price as a legal right. Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab unit of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee, said all the unions, which participated in the meeting, had rejected the government’s indication of leaving the matter to the Supreme Court. “The government wants to take the matter in the court to prolong the way out. They don’t want to resolve the issue,” he said. Mr. Pandher said farmer outfits were all set to intensify their agitation and had appealed to farmers and farm labourers across the country to step up their efforts to make the proposed ‘tractor parade’ on January 26 in New Delhi a success. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh said the Centre had enacted the laws and it could repeal them easily. “There is no need of going to the Supreme court. The government should listen to farmers demand and immediately repeal the laws,” he said.

The Hindu

2021-01-10

CHANDIGARH