AMBALA: To mark the protest against the Centre’s three agri-marketing laws and the 76th death anniversary of Sir Chhotu Ram, thousands of Ambala district farmers on Saturday held the rehearsals for the tractor parade to be carried out on the day of Republic Day at Delhi on January 26.
The farmers held two different rehearsals at Ambala City and Naraingarh town of the district, in which, about 5,000 tractors attended on the call given by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Haryana (Charuni), said the union leaders.
In Ambala city, in the morning, thousands of farmers of all ages along with their tractors started gathering at the new grain market on Ambala-Hisar highway and carried out a tractor parade from here to Baldev Nagar, Jandali, Prem Nagar, Model Town and back to the grain market.
Similarly, in Naraingarh, the farmers with their tractors gathered at Kadasan village on national highway (NH) 344 and carried out a tractor parade to Naraingarh town via Shahzadpur and returned to Kadasan.
The farmers raised anti-government slogans including against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and they also put the garland of shoes on their effigies and beat them with shoes.
Both the rallies were entirely peaceful and the tractors remained in a single lane without disturbing the ongoing traffic on the roads and highways.
BKU Haryana (Charuni) Ambala district president Malkiat Singh Sahibpura lead the rally at Naraingarh. He said, “As the government is not talking concrete in the meetings held with our leaders of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, therefore, following call of our leaders, we have started preparing for the peaceful tractor parade on January 26. About 2,000 tractors attended the parade in Naraingarh, which is just a trailer and the main rally will be huge in Delhi.”
This union’s Ambala district vice-president Gulab Singh lead the rally at Ambala City, he said, “About 3,000 tractors attended our rally which remained entirely peaceful. We had strictly instructed the young workers to refrain from indulging in any kind of ruckus and to ensure that the public traffic does not face inconvenience due to tractor parade. Therefore, all the tractors remained in a single lane. Not even a single tractor was out of the lane.”
"On January 26, the government may use bullets, bombs, lathi-charge against us but we will not turn back. Neither will we indulge in any violence. We are fully prepared for the tractor parade", said Gulab Singh.