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Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat: 30K Punjab farmers in 800 trucks, buses, trains to reach Delhi today

ByVishal Joshi
Mar 14, 2024 04:38 AM IST

A nationwide protest is likely to be announced at the event against the central government, say farm leaders

Scores of farmers from across Punjab started moving towards Delhi on Wednesday in more than 800 buses and trucks and several trains to attend Thursday’s “Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat” at Ramlila Maidan.

Scores of farmers from across Punjab started moving towards Delhi on Wednesday in more than 800 buses and trucks and several trains to attend Thursday’s “Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat” at Ramlila Maidan.
Scores of farmers from across Punjab started moving towards Delhi on Wednesday in more than 800 buses and trucks and several trains to attend Thursday’s “Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat” at Ramlila Maidan.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 37 farm unions, which gave the call for the ‘mahapanchayat’ on February 22 at a meeting in Chandigarh, got a no-objection certificate for the gathering from the Delhi Police and municipal corporation on March 11.

Manjit Dhaner, head of the Dhaner faction of BKU (Ekta-Dakaunda), which is part of the SKM, said more than 30,000 farmers from Punjab are expected to reach the national capital.

Farmers are demanding a law on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops, and complete waiver of loans for all farmers, among others.

Read Here | Farmers’ protest 2.0: New vanguards emerge as veterans pushed to margins

The “mahapanchayat” is being held at a time when other farmer unions under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and SKM (Non-Political), splinter groups of the SKM, are holding sit-ins at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border for the past one month after the security forces halted their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march. The SKM is not part of the “Delhi Chalo” march but it has extended support to the splinter groups at both the sites.

Farmer leaders owning allegiance to the SKM said BJP governments in Haryana and Centre were not disrupting the movement of farmers heading towards Ramlila Maidan for a mega event. They said granting permission for Thursday’s mega event was an indicator that the BJP leadership has accepted the unity of cultivators and farm workers.

Farm unions divided

However, farmer unions of Punjab remained divided as the leadership of SKM (Non-Political) and various constituents of the SKM continued to trade barbs on each other on Wednesday.

State general secretary of the BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) Kaka Singh Kotra said his ‘jathebandi’ is happy that other farmer unions have finally come on the road to raise the demands of the agrarian community.

Read Here: Supreme Court allows withdrawal of a plea on farmer protests

Kotra clarified that his union was not attending the ‘mahapanchayat’ as the Haryana government has not removed road blockades from the Shambhu and Khanauri borders.

Farm union faction to stay put at Punjab-Haryana borders

“We started a protest against the BJP-led central government and the Haryana government deployed heavy security to block our way. Today, we completed one month of our protest at Shambhu and Khanauri borders and the BJP government has not lifted the blockade forcing farmers to stay put on the road. On the other hand, all other unions associated with the SKM have been granted permission to protest in the national capital,” he said.

General secretary of the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said the volunteers of the union from 17 districts would halt at Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district on Wednesday evening before proceeding further for the ‘mahapanchayat’.

“Most of our activists are reaching Delhi on hired buses and trucks while a few others are reaching on private vehicles and trains. Tomorrow, a nationwide protest is likely to be announced at the mahapanchayat against the central government’s anti-farmer and pro-corporate approach,” he said.

Read Here: Trust deficit between farm unions once again comes to fore during Rail Roko stir

Kokrikalan said that the SKM has not received any feeler from the SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) on attending the “mahapanchayat”.

Farmers to return after ‘mahapanchyat’

President of the Dhaner faction of BKU (Ekta-Dakaunda) Manjit Dhaner said activists from 13 districts of all three regions boarded trains to reach Delhi where they will stay at different gurdwaras.

“Farmers will retreat after the culmination of the event by 4pm on Thursday. A six-member committee of the SKM made several attempts to establish coordination with the splinter groups of Dallewal and Pandher but to no avail. Besides attending the mahapanchayat in Delhi, our faction will continue holding a dharnas at Doomwali on the inter-state border in Bathinda on Thursday as well,” added Dhaner.

Amrik Singh, Jalandhar district president of BKU Kadia said: “Farmers from across the country are going to reach national capital as the long-pending demands, including legal guarantee of MSP, have not been fulfilled by the Centre. The issue pertaining to use of force by Haryana Police on farmers in which a young protester died will be discussed at the mahapanchayat and the next course of action will also be decoded at the event,” he said.

Jatinder Singh Chhina, state vice-president of Kirti Kisan Union, said: “Thousands of farmers boarded trains to Delhi from Beas and other railway stations.”

(Inputs from Jalandhar and Amritsar)

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