BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) calls off agitation after Punjab govt convenes talks on October 13

Farm union activists call off day-and-night blockades across Malwa district headquarters as finance minister Harpal Cheema-led panel invites union leadership to Chandigarh.

Sangrur/Bathinda: The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) called off its statewide protest on Tuesday after district officials, led by additional deputy commissioner (ADC), Sangrur, handed over an official meeting invitation to union president Joginder Singh Ugrahan on stage.

Women activists of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) blocking the gate to the district administrative complex in Bathinda on Tuesday morning. The blockade was lifted later in the afternoon. (Sanjeev Kumar/HT)

The decision came on the second day of the agitation during which protesters sealed off district administrative complexes (DACs) across Punjab’s Malwa belt, bringing administrative work to a standstill in Sangrur, Bathinda, Moga, Mansa, and Muktsar since Monday morning.

A high-level meeting to address the union’s 13-point charter of demands has been scheduled at 12,30pm October 13 at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh.

State finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema will chair the panel along with cabinet ministers Aman Arora and Gurmeet Singh Khudian.

A 12-member delegation of senior state officials will also participate in the discussions, including the additional chief secretaries of agriculture, revenue, home affairs, and finance; the principal secretaries for water resources and housing and urban development; and the administrative secretaries representing power, labour, excise and taxation, and rural development and panchayats. The excise and taxation commissioner and the assistant director of Punjab Bhawan have also been asked to attend.

Protesters burned effigies of chief minister Bhagwant Mann across districts on Monday night and blocked the official residence of the Sangrur deputy commissioner. By Tuesday morning, union members blocked all entry gates at DACs across the region, barring government officers, staff, and visitors from entering the premises.

Police stepped up presence around the complexes; no violence was reported.

Union leaders had originally threatened to continue the day-and-night sit-in indefinitely until their demands were met. The key demands include: Immediate withdrawal of the state’s land pooling policy; repeal of the four central labour codes, the Electricity Amendment Bill, the Seed Bill, and the VB-G RAM G scheme (the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin, which replaced MGNREGA).

They also sought a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) on all crops and complete farm loan waivers for farmers and agricultural labourers besides compensation for crop damage caused by floods and natural disasters, alongside government jobs and financial aid for families affected by farm debt suicides. The union leaders demanded land ownership rights for agricultural labourers, cultivators, and long-term settlers.

They sought an immediate end to drone surveillance, dismissal of all police cases registered against farmers for stubble burning, and the publication of a white paper on river waters flowing to Pakistan through the Ravi.