Rahul would be driving a tractor for 52 kms over the next three days and the convoy will move through rural and link roads. (File photo)Punjab, Haryana Farmers Protest Today Live News Updates: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Sunday will launch a tractor rally in support of farmers agitating against the farm legislations. Rahul, who is on a three-day visit to Punjab and Haryana, is expected to address two public meetings, each with a gathering of at least 10,000 farmers in Moga and Ludhiana. He will also lead a tractor rally for which the party has arranged at least 3,000 tractors in Moga with another 2,000 to join as it enters Ludhiana.
Shri @RahulGandhi will begin a 3 day yatra through Punjab & Haryana tomorrow with public meetings & a tractor rally in Punjab.
Watch him live on our social media channels.— Congress (@INCIndia) October 3, 2020
Starting from Badhni Kalan in Moga, Rahul would be driving a tractor for 52 kms over the next three days and the convoy will move through rural and link roads, which are maintained by the Punjab Mandi Board utilising the funds collected by levying market fee and rural development fund (RDF) from the grain markets.
The final tour programme of Gandhi is yet to be finalised but according to the party’s preliminary plan, he will finish his tractor rallies in Punjab’s Patiala and attempt to enter Haryana through Pehowa on October 6. From Pehowa, he will reach Pipli in Kurukshetra, address a rally of farmers, shopkeepers and arhtiyas and then take the national highway to Delhi. Congress party is also exploring another route in Ambala for Gandhi’s entry into Haryana.
Protesting against the new farm laws, farmers sit at the Railway station in Jalandhar for an indefinite period as part of their rail roko agitation in Punjab on Thursday. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh )
Punjab farmers' protest against the Centre's new farm laws continued on Saturday as they squatted on rail tracks for an indefinite period. The agitating farmers raised slogans against the government and said that the stir will go on till their demand for revoking the new laws was not accepted. A total of 31 farmers' bodies have joined hands to step up their agitation. They had announced to block rail tracks from October 1 for an indefinite period.
Farmers have blocked rail tracks at many places including Dhablan (Patiala), Sunam (Sangrur), Budhlada (Mansa), Gidderbaha (Muktsar), Barnala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Rupnagar, Phillaur, Samrala and Moga. Farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee have been squatting at rail tracks in Amritsar and Ferozepur since September 24.
According to Krantikari Kisan Union president Darshan Pal, besides blocking rail tracks at 33 places, farmers have also staged sit-ins outside 24 petrol pumps, nine toll plazas, four shopping malls, a power thermal plant and a foodgrain godown belonging to some corporate houses. Farmers have also given a call to boycott some corporate houses and their products in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the Opposition, which is currently protesting against the new farm laws, had also thought of bringing improvements to the existing legislation but “lacked courage”.
Addressing a public gathering at Solang near Manali after inaugurating the Atal Tunnel, Modi said that those who opposed the new laws had promoted commission agents and middlemen when they were in power. “Those opposing the laws want to live in the previous century. But the country is eager for change, and the laws are a historic improvement in the farm sector. Even they (the Opposition) thought of this improvement, but lacked the courage to introduce it,” he said.
Modi’s statement seemed to be a veiled dig at the Congress — the BJP has cited the opposition party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to assert that it had also promised the same laws which the Modi government has enacted to allow farmers to sell their produce outside state-controlled mandis but is now criticising them for political reasons. Read more here
With Congress all set to hold massive public meetings and tractor rallies led by party leader Rahul Gandhi in Punjab beginning Sunday as a “show of solidarity for farmers against three farm laws enacted by Centre,” the administration in at least one district, in a move to bypass the Unlock 5.0 guidelines, has termed it “an extension of ongoing farmers’ agitation in state”.
Rahul, who will be reaching Punjab Sunday, is expected to address two public meetings, each with gathering of at least 10,000 farmers in Moga and Ludhiana. He will also lead a tractor rally for which the party has arranged at least 3,000 tractors in Moga with another 2,000 to join as it enters Ludhiana. The party has named 3-day show as ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ with the slogan ‘Kisan Bachao, Punjab Bachao.’
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Sunday will launch a tractor rally in support of farmers agitating against the farm legislations. Rahul, who is on a three-day visit to Punjab and Haryana, is expected to address two public meetings, each with a gathering of at least 10,000 farmers in Moga and Ludhiana.