Anil Vij appeals to farm leaders to call off chakka jam, come forward for dialogue

Haryana Home and Health Minister Anil Vij Thursday appealed to farm leaders to call off the ‘chakka jam’ planned for Saturday, and “come forward for dialogue”.

Speaking to the media in Gurgaon on Thursday morning, Vij said, “Even the big issues of the world, international issues also, are solved through dialogue, and our government is always ready…even the Prime Minister has said that the roads for dialogue are always open, so they should come forward for dialogue.”

“Everyone has a right to demonstrate and stage protests in a democracy, but it must be considered that, while using this right of ours, the rights of others should not get violated, the common public should not experience sorrow and difficulty. That is why I request farm leaders to cancel the chakka jam program on February 6,” he said.

The Health Minister also alleged that the farmers’ protest has turned into a place where political leaders are “baking their bread”.

“You must be seeing that instead of a farmers’ forum, it has become a platform for political parties, all political leaders are going there and breaking their bread…all these parties don’t want a solution to be found, they want to take every step by which the fight can continue,” said Vij.

The Health Minister was speaking to the media after inaugurating the second phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive, which will see frontline workers, including police personnel and workers of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), being vaccinated.

“In the first phase, health workers were vaccinated and around 65 percent workers in the state have been vaccinated so far. In this phase also, there are 1 lakh beneficiaries, including police, home guard, revenue department personnel, and workers of local bodies…We have vaccines in sufficient quantity,” said Vij.

Appealing to people to get vaccinated without any hesitation, he added, “We are very proud of the fact that in the time of this pandemic, we did not have to depend on any other country, and the scientists of our country developed a vaccine here itself…everyone should come, nobody should have any hesitation.”