Thousands of farmers across the country staged protests against the three agriculture legislation recently passed in Parliament.
Though the protests were held in several parts of the country, the intensity was more in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Farmers had called a Bharat Bandh on Friday in protest against the Bills.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, addressing BJP workers, kept up his offensive against the Opposition, saying that those who always “lied” to farmers are now “shooting from their shoulders” and misleading them for their political benefit. He also asked BJP workers to reach out to farmers on the ground and inform them about the details and benefits of the new agriculture reforms and how these will empower them. Farmers want a provision in the Bills that will ensure assured purchase at minimum support price (MSP) even outside the mandis.
In Punjab and Haryana, farmers blocked roads, including highways, to press the Centre for the withdrawal of the legislations, which are yet to get the assent of the President.
The Punjab Bandh call got support from government employees' unions, singers, commission agents, labourers and social activists. Shops, commercial establishments and vegetable markets at many places remained shut. Buses of the state-owned Pepsu Road Transport Corp remained off-road in Punjab.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal drove a tractor while his wife and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal sat beside him in Muktsar district. Sukhbir led a tractor march from his residence in Badal village to Lambi where the party had organised a protest against the Bills. In Barnala, a tractor was set on fire. Punjab farmers blocked the Sangrur-Patiala, Chandigarh-Bathinda and Ambala-Rajpura-Ludhiana and Moga-Ferozepur roads. In Haryana, farmers blocked the Rohtak-Jhajjar road. In Western UP, hundreds of farmers gathered on a key road in Noida, prompting the deployment of police in riot gear that kept them from proceeding towards Delhi.
In Left-ruled West Bengal, members of farmers' bodies loyal to the Left parties staged protests in various parts. In Kerala also, farmers staged widespread protests.
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