Farmers Movement Archive

Farmer injured amid protests against Khattar

L“The farmers, enraged by the highly disparaging remarks made during farmers’ agitation by BJP leaders, had assembled to peacefully show black flags to the Chief Minister. Even women protesters were manhandled by the male cops. Some protesters have received grievous injuries,” said a statement issued by Haryana All-India Kisan Sabha vice-president Inderjit Singh. Later in the evening, farmers in Jind blocked the Jind-Chandigarh road at Kandela village in protest against police action on farmers in Rohtak. “The road has been blocked for two hours, and traffic is diverted,” said Dinesh Kumar, Station House Office, Jind Sadar Police Station. Tekram Kandela, convener, Uttar Bharat Khap Panchayats, told The Hindu that the road was also blocked in protest against the attack on farmer leader Rakesh Tikait. He said the blockade would continue all through the night and next course of action would be decided in the morning. The incident comes close on the heels of a similar protest against Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala in Hisar on April 1. As harvesting of wheat is all set to commence in Punjab and Haryana, farmers are shaping up a strategy to ensure that the build-up of protesters agitating against Centre's agriculture laws at state borders surrounding Delhi doesn’t drop. The SKM held a joint meeting of farmers, farm workers, women, employees, students, youth, commission agents, teachers, university staff and other organisations at Ludhiana based Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) to devise a strategy for the agitation during the upcoming harvesting season. “More than 100 organisations took part in today’s meeting organised by PAU Teachers' Union, PAU Employees' Union and PAU Students' Union. The meeting took cognisance of the fact that when farmers and farm workers attend to wheat harvesting in their farms, the Delhi protest sites have to continue to remain strong in terms of participation. While the farmers' movement will not be weakened in any way, this meeting sought ways of strengthening the protest sites by the participation of non-farmer unions,” said Mr. Pal. Mr. Pal said all participants pledged to extend their full support in strengthening the movement. “The first meeting of ‘Punjab for Farmers’ will be held in Jalandhar on April 7,” he said. (With inputs from Vikas Vasudeva)

The Hindu

2021-04-04

April 04 2021 00:00 IST