Farmers Movement Archive

₹45L and job for victim’s kin, judicial probe: Lakhimpur Kheri farmers agree to cremate bodies

Talks between the administration and protesting farmers, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, ended on a “positive note” on Monday as agitations continued to spread across parts of north India over the deaths of at least eight persons, including four ryots, in a violent clash that erupted at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.According to the agreement reached, the government will give ₹45 lakh and a job to families of the four deceased farmers, while the injured will receive an aid of ₹10 lakh each. The jobs will be given in tandem with the qualifications of the family members. The farmers have now allowed the administration to go ahead with the final rites of the deceased.Also read | Detained on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri, Priyanka Gandhi offers ‘shramdaan’Additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar, who was part of the five rounds of negotiations, said, the first information report (FIR) will be registered based on the farmers' complaint. The demand on FIR has already been met. Also, a retired high court judge will investigate the violence, he added.Tikait was one of the very few prominent faces allowed to enter the restive area since Sunday evening even as leaders of Opposition parties continued to make several efforts to meet the aggrieved families. Among them Priyanka Gandhi has decided to continue her agitation in detention, while Samajwadi Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav have been taken into police custody as they staged a sit-in over Akhilesh’s house arrest.Also read | Missing local journalist among victims of violence in Lakhimpur KheriPunjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi also vowed to visit Lakhimpur Kheri “in solidarity with bereaved families of farmers,” while his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel asked whether civil rights have been suspended in Uttar Pradesh on being denied permission to land at Lucknow airport. Also read | 'Political tourism': UP minister says politics over bodies won't help oppositionOfficials said political leaders like Gandhi and Yadav others were not being allowed to come to Lakhimpur Kheri because of the prohibitory orders in place, adding Tikait and other farmer leaders were engaging in negotiations.Among senior officials present for the talks were additional chief secretary (agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi, inspector general (Lucknow) Laxmi Singh and ADG (Lucknow) SN Sabat.(With inputs from bureau)

Hindustan Times

04-10-2021

India