PremiumFarmers from 22 states have started their journeys to participate in the protests planned outside the Parliament from 22 July to demand the scrapping of the contentious farm laws and for a legal guarantee on MSP, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday said.
The umbrella body of more than 40 farmer unions has planned that nearly 200 farmers will hold protests outside the Parliament every day during the monsoon session beginning 19 July. The leaders have not commented on whether they have permission to hold demonstrations outside parliament but have maintained that the protests will be "peaceful".
"The Samyukta Kisan Morcha's call for Parliament March from July 22 till August 13 has received an overwhelming and enthusiastic response from across the country," it said in a statement.
Farmers from these states will participate
Besides Punjab and Haryana, a large number of farmers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan will participate in the protest, SKM said
Special marches by women on July 26 and August 9 will also see huge participation from across India, including the northeastern states, it said.
"The parliamentarians shall see farmers from all over India march in a disciplined manner to parliament to place their demands and have their voices heard," SKM said.
Extending their support to the farmers' movement, Punjabi artists, including Gul Panag, Amitoj Mann and Babbu Mann, performed on Thursday for the protestors camping at the Singhu border, the statement said.
They also appealed to the Indian citizens to extend their solidarity with the farmers' movement.
"It is noteworthy that all sections of the country are coming out in support of the farmers and it is unfortunate that the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unable to do justice to the farmers and stand with them," the statement said.
The central government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, has offered to bring amendments but has ruled out their scrapping.
Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at the Delhi borders against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties.
With agency inputs
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