Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers take to the streets over farm Bills

They also announced stoppage of rail traffic indefinitely from October 1, if their demands were not met. Participating in the stir on the Delhi-Amritsar NH at Rajpura, Gurdev Singh, 60, a farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib, said his fear was that private players would take over the agriculture trade completely and the government would stop purchasing wheat and paddy from farmers. “Once that happens, it is evident that the Minimum Support Price regime will get eliminated. It is a conspiracy to phase out farmers from agriculture and let big corporates take over gradually,” said Mr. Singh. Jagmohan Singh, general secretary, Bhartaiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), said protests were held at over 150 places in Punjab. “Besides starting an indefinite rail roko agitation from October 1, a resolution will be passed by the gram sabha of each village to cancel the agriculture Bills and [Punjab] Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will be urged to convene a special session of the Assembly and pass a resolution not to implement the agricultural laws in Punjab,” he said. BJP’s alliance partner, Shiromani Akali Dal, also staged protests across the State as part of its ‘chakka jam’ programme. The party asked Captain Amarinder Singh to call an immediate Cabinet meeting and pass an ordinance to declare the entire State as one ‘mandi’ (principal market yard) to ensure that the Central agricultural Bills are not enforceable in Punjab. Peaceful protests In neighbouring Haryana, peaceful demonstrations were held across the State, with Kurukshetra, Ambala and Yamuna Nagar bearing the maximum impact. Though commercial establishments and transport services remained unaffected, protesters sat on roads at several places, including highways, disrupting traffic. Besides Delhi-Hisar, Ambala-Kaithal and Jind-Patiala highways, farmers blocked internal roads in Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Ambala, Kaithal and Jind. Farmers massed on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, squatting on National Highway-9 and disrupting traffic. Protests in Shahjahanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Noida, Aligarh and Mathura led to long traffic jams across western Uttar Pradesh. Protests were also held in Rajasthan. (With inputs from Ashok Kumar and Anuj Kumar)

The Hindu

2020-09-26

September 26 2020 00:00 IST