The nationwide 'Chakka Jam' called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, and backed by the opposition parties in Bihar, did not have much effect on the common people of the state on Saturday.
The leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) held peaceful protests at Hajipur and Didarganj (Patna), respectively, to express their solidarity with the agitating farmers. However, the demonstartions didn't cause much disrupttion to public life.
The opposition parties in Bihar participated in the 'Chakka Jam' between 2 pm and to 3 pm on Saturday.
A unit of the RJD blocked the at Hajipur-Patna road for half-an-hour, before the district police of Vaishali managed to remove them after brief negotiation.
Slamming the Nitish Kumar government, RJD General Secretary Bhai Arun Kumar said, "The NDA government is shaken by the public agitation. The government and the administration do not want to listen to their concerns."
Kumar also termed JDU leader Sanjay Singh's remark on the protestors as 'extremely unfortunate'.
"Earlier in the day, Singh compared the protesters to bad elements. The RJD condemns his remark as the protesters are our farmer brothers and their insult is akin to insulting the nation," Kumar said.
Meanwhile, over 100 members of JAP blocked the Didarganj toll plaza on Saturday to show solidarity with the farmers. They even burnt tyres at some places.
Raghvendra Singh Kushwah, the state President of JAP, said: "The three farm bills were passed in the Parliament without consulting the farmers. The farmers do not want these laws. We will stand by them till our last breath, and our agitation will continue until the Centre repeals the three farm laws."
"The three laws allow the corporate companies to create their own private mandis. With that, they will have monopoly over the market. In that case, the farmers cannot get MSP as the rate of crops will be set by the corporates," said Prem Chand Singh, General Secretary of JAP.
--IANS
ajk/arm
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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