Farmers at the protest site at Burari, in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)Farmers Protest Today Live Updates: After Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s offer of holding talks, a group of farmers at the Singhu border will address a press conference today. During the presser, the farmers are likely to outline their further course of action. Swaraj India founder, Yogendra Yadav, who is part of the seven-member Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of over three dozen farmer organisations, will also be present during the presser. A majority of Punjab farmer unions, meanwhile, have decided to stay put outside Delhi borders. The farmers, who have launched a campaign against the Centre’s newly enacted farm laws and seek assurance on the MSP and the mandi system, want to hold the protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
In other news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mentioned the farm laws in his monthly radio address ‘Mann ki Baat’ today. The prime minister asserted that these reforms have not only freed peasants from various shackles but have also bestowed on them new rights and opportunities.
Meanwhile, security remains heightened at the Delhi-Haryana border at Tikri as farmers, stayed put at the Delhi border points for the fourth consecutive day today. Despite police eventually granting permission to the farmers to move their protest to Burari’s Nirankari ground, most remained averse to the idea. While some said they would wait for their numbers to swell and leaders to join them before moving forward, others wanted permission to protest at the higher-profile Ramlila Ground or Jantar Mantar.
Farmers at the Delhi border, in Singhu, on Saturday. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)
Farmers at Shambhu Barrier in Ambala. (Photo by A. Aggarwal)
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said farmers protesting against the Centre's new agri laws are being treated as if they are "terrorists", and it is sad that they are not being allowed to enter Delhi. The government should consider the farmers' demands sympathetically, Raut told reporters here. Thousands of farmers, protesting against three agriculture laws enacted by the Centre, have gathered at border points of the national capital as part of their 'Delhi Chalo' march.
"It is sad they are not being allowed to come to Delhi and are being treated as if they are terrorists and have come from outside the country. The government should consider the demands of farmers sympathetically," Raut said.
"Farm laws is one issue. Consider all other demands sympathetically. Different states are not doing well. It is up to the Centre to step in and help them," the Rajya Sabha member said. (PTI)
Farmers protesting against the Centre's three farm laws on Sunday decided not to shift to the Burari ground in the national capital and stay put at the Delhi borders. Thousands of farmers continued to protest at the Singhu and Tikri borders on the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Saturday appealed to the farmers to shift to the Sant Nirankari ground in Burari that was offered to them for peaceful protests and said the Centre was ready to hold discussions with them as soon as they move to the designated place. "We have decided that we will stay put at the Delhi borders. We will not go to Burari," Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda) president Buta Singh Burjgill said over the phone.
The decision was taken by representatives of several farmers organisations, he said. Farmer leader Harmeet Singh Kadian, who is the president of BKU (Kadian), too said that the protesters will not shift to the Burari ground. (PTI)
The protesting farmers, including those from Punjab, may face legal action with Haryana Police lodging several FIRs against them for breaking police barricades to move to the national capital as part of their “Delhi Chalo” call.
Besides Ambala district, hundreds of farmers have been booked for rioting, unlawful assembly, obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, damage to public property and provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, in Panipat, Rohtak, Kaithal, Sirsa and other districts.
Terming them false, the Congress claimed the FIRs have been lodged against “20,000 farmers” at different police stations of Haryana. Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said lodging of an FIR against a youth, Navdeep Singh, who had climbed the water cannon to turn it off during farmers' stir in Ambala district on November 25, is “shameful”. “What type of justice is this? How a youth can be booked for attempt to murder charges for just turning off the water cannon which was used on farmers during cold?” Surjewala asked.
However, the police claim that the FIRs have been lodged only in those cases where any offence was committed or criminal force was used.
After Amit Shah's offer for talks, a group of farmers at the Singhu border will today address a press conference at 4 pm. During the presser, the farmers are likely to outline their further course of actions. Swaraj India founder, Yogendra Yadav, who is part of the seven-member Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of over three dozen farmer organisations, will also be present.
While Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar thanked farmers of his state for not becoming part of the Delhi Chalo march, farmers from Punjab expressed gratitude to people of the neighbouring state for helping them by going out of their way when they faced obstacles.
In one such incident, a large convoy of BKU (Ugrahan) was made to stay overnight at Meham Chaubisi - a cluster of 24 villages in Rohtak district. The commission agents at Meham Chaubisi’s Dana Mandi opened their shops and made arrangements for the farmers to sleep while some slept in the trolleys itself. The commission agents also served langar to farmers at night and in the morning.
Ashish Kumar, sarpanch of Fermana village, said, “I have a shop at the Dana Mandi. Like me, many other commission agents came out to help them. We will continue to help farmers if they come here as part of their Delhi Chalo march”.
Janak Raj Agarwal, a 55-year-old man, who helped to repair tractors free of cost at the Tikri border, died after the car in which he was sleeping caught fire. Blaming the government, Harinder Bindu, a farmer leader said, "He came to serve farmers in this agitation which is being done against Farm Acts. He was not even a farmer but still wanted to support us in his own way." Janak had come from Punjab on Friday evening and had serviced many tractors on Saturday.
During his monthly radio address 'Man ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the Centre's new farm laws and asserted that these reforms have not only freed peasants from various shackles but have also bestowed on them new rights and opportunities.
Addressing his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio programme, Modi said the recent agriculture reforms have begun mitigating the troubles of farmers in a short span of time as he cited the example of a Maharashtra farmer who used the provisions of the new laws to get the money promised to him by a trader. "Since ages, these demands of farmers which at one point of time or the other all political parties had promised to them, have now been fulfilled. After deep deliberations, Parliament recently passed farm reform laws," he said. "These reforms have not only freed the farmers from various shackles, but have also given them new rights and opportunities. In such a short span of time, these rights have started reducing the problems of farmers," he said.
Eight opposition parties in a joint statement on Saturday said the attempts by police to stop the farmers' march towards Delhi by using tear gas, water cannons and by digging up roads were like "waging a war" and asked the government to address the "concerns" of the protesting farmers. The signatories include NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK leader T R Baalu, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, RSP general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas. However, the main opposition Congress was not part of the statement.
Rejecting Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s offer of moving the ongoing protests to a designated site in Burari on the outskirts of the national capital, a majority of farmer unions have decided to stay put outside Delhi borders. The farmers, who have launched a campaign against the Centre’s newly enacted farm laws and seek assurance on the MSP and the mandi system, want to hold the protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
While the Home Minister made an appeal to all unions via the media on Friday evening, he personally called three farmer leaders - Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan), Jagjit Singh Dallewal, president of BKU ( Sidhupur) and Balbir Singh Rajewal, President of BKU (Rajewal).
Hitting out at the Central government over the ongoing protests by farmers against three recent farm laws, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said the BJP had promised to double the income of farmers, but its policies hit them the most. Expressing his support for the protests, he added, “If farmers are left to the market and the big players, then they will never benefit. The economy of the country will never be better unless farmers are not in better condition.”
"They (agitating farmers) are sitting peacefully & have been cooperating till now. Our objective is to maintain law & order & to ensure that the arrangements are in place to facilitate their movement," Surendra Yadav, Joint CP, Northern Range, Delhi told news agency ANI
The Madhya Pradesh government is planning boost infrastructure at mandis in the state by setting up shops for subsidised agricultural products and malls similar to Army canteens within their premises, state Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel said Saturday. According to the proposal, at least 25 petrol pumps will also be opened on a pilot basis inside the premises of mandis.
His announcement—made after a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar—comes as farmers in the state protest the three controversial farm laws and seeking a separate legislation to ensure functioning of mandis. Patel refused to give a written assurance to the state's farmers on mandis, saying: “When we have assured that the mandis will not cease to function, there is not need to give the same in writing. We are saying that mandis will continue to function.”
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday urged farmers to accept Union Home Minister Amit Shah's appeal and shift to the designated place for their protest, thus paving the way for early talks to resolve their issues. Shah's offer to advance talks with farmers from December 3 and his statement reflecting the Centre's willingness to listen to the farmers is a welcome step, said the CM in a statement. He said the only solution to the current stalemate over the farm laws issue is discussion.
Pointing out that the purpose of their protest was not to block highways and inconvenience people but to pressure the Union government to listen to their voice, said the CM. The farmers have already won half the battle by bringing the Union government to the negotiating table without further delay. In the circumstances, they should grab the Union home minister's offer and make the most of the opportunity to resolve the crisis triggered by the Union laws, said Amarinder Singh. He and his government are prepared to extend their full support to these negotiations and were willing to mediate in the collective interest of all, Amarinder Singh reiterated.