Farmers Movement Archive

Covid fears as thousands of farmers gather in Hisar

The Hisar administration on Monday agreed to withdraw cases registered against over 350 farmers after a clash escalated between them and the police on May 16 during Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit to inaugurate a Covid hospital.Thousands of farmers, including women and youths, on Monday started assembling at four toll plazas on outskirts of Hisar to start a protest march in front of the divisional commissioner’s office. From there, the farmers went to Krantiman Park where a farmer, identified as Ram Chander Kharab of Uglana village, died of heart attack.As many as 4,000 rapid action force personnel and Haryana armed police staff of Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa, Jind, and Fatehabad were deployed to restrict entry of protesters inside the city.Anti-riot vehicles and a wall were erected to stop movement of farmers but the protest ended peacefully. No untoward incident was reported in district.The farmers’ march was stopped at Fawara Chowk, nearly 1km from the commissioner’s office and a 26-member farmer delegation was invited by the district administration to hold talks.Farm leaders including BKU spokesman Rakesh Tikait, Gurnam Singh Charuni, Balbir Singh Rajewala, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Vikas Sisar and others moved ahead for discussion with the district officials.To avoid any mishap, Tikait led the protest and his SUV was at forefront during the protest march.After attending the meeting with district administration, Tikait said the administration has agreed to revoke cases registered against peasants in connection with the May 16 incident and will take legal course of action to withdraw the cases.“It was decided to withdraw cases within a month’s time. If the Hisar administration tries to betray us again, we will start a ‘pucca morcha’ here,” he said.“The administration has accepted our demand to give government job to the kin of Ram Chander, who died of heart attack during the march. We will observe black day on May 26 on completion of six months of the farm agitation. The government should accept our demands and end this deadlock,” he added.Tikait said 12 opposition parties supported them in the media but none of them sat in the tents during the agitation.Hisar SDM Jagdeep Singh said the administration and farmers have agreed to withdraw the cases registered against farmers within a month.“We have agreed to provide job to the deceased farmer’s family member on DC rate,” the SDM added.

Hindustan Times

25-05-2021

India