DM Monitoring
NEW DELHI: Protesting farmers have called for a Karnataka bandh (Karnataka block) on March 26. The call was given at the ‘Vidhana Soudha Chalo’ rally led by farmer leaders Darshan Pal and Rakesh Tikait in Bengaluru, as per the Indian media reports on Monday.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha, leading the farmers’ movement in Delhi, has called for the bandh to mark four months of protest at the Delhi borders, the report said.
Meanwhile it was reported that Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait will address a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Jaipur. The mahapanchayat will be held at Vidhyadhar Nagar stadium, Raja Ram Meel, president of the Jat Mahasabha, said.
“It will be the first meeting of Tikait in Jaipur. Earlier, he has held a few meetings in other districts like Hanumangarh and Ganganagar,” Meel told reporters.
“Farmers have understood that the Modi government has cheated them and is trying to weaken farmers. The government is planning to hand over the agriculture sector to industrialists and farmers have understood this thing. Therefore, there are countrywide protests against the farm laws,” he said.
Earlier, Farmer unions on Sunday condemned the demand for immediate implementation of the Essential Commodities Amendment Act (ECAA) by a parliamentary committee. The ECAA is one of the three laws against which farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s borders.
The parliamentary panel, which also has members from opposition parties, including the Congress, TMC and the AAP, asked the government to implement in “letter and spirit” the ECAA. These parties have been demanding a repeal of all three farm laws enacted by the Centre recently.
“It is insensitive to the food security of poor people and the demand to increase the procurement of farmers’ crops,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a joint front of the protesting farmer unions, said in a statement. “We appeal to farmers, labourers and common citizens to intensify their struggle for the repeal of the three laws and legal right of minimum support price, the SKM said.
The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained. Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers’ union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming.
The ‘Delhi Chalo’ farmers’ protest at border points of New Delhi has entered the 119th day as of Monday. Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi borders. The protest started on November 26, 2020.
