Most cases lodged during farmers’ agitation withdrawn: Vij
A delegation of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) met Vij at his residence in connection with a 2020 case of poor sunflower seeds in Kurukshetra, on which action was assured by the minister
: Ahead of the scheduled agitation by Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) on November 24 in Ambala over cases filed against farmers during their agitation against the now repealed three contentious farm laws, Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said that most of the cases have been withdrawn and the process is underway to drop the rest of them.
A delegation of the union met Vij at his residence in connection with a 2020 case of poor sunflower seeds in Kurukshetra, on which action was assured by the minister.
During the meeting, Vij assured the delegation that the rest of the pending cases are being withdrawn.
In a statement, the minister’s office said, “during the farmers’ agitation, a total of 294 cases were registered, out of which permission to cancel 163 cases has been received from the government and in 98 cases, the court has allowed a withdrawal. There are four cases for which a permission is pending, three have been stayed by a Sonepat court and a case has been listed untraceable in Palwal. Process to withdraw the rest of them is underway.”
However, the farmers are going ahead with their November 24 protest despite assurance by Vij.
Demanding a complete withdrawal of criminal cases by the state and railways lodged against them, the farmers will block the Ambala-Delhi rail track near Mohra in Ambala Cantonment on November 24, when the farmers from Haryana had marched towards the national capital in 2020.
Union’s district president Malkit Singh, who was in the delegation, told the HT, “the minister sought details of the cases pending according to us and a list will be made available to him. We have informed the national president about the meeting.”
Union’s national president Gurnam Singh Charuni is scheduled to hold a press conference on the same issue at Chandigarh Press Club On Thursday.
The union’s national spokesperson Rakesh Bains apprised Vij about the state’s cases pending in Kurukshetra district and by the railways.
“An RTI was filed by me with the railway’s Delhi division in September and a reply was received in October, according to which twelve cases were registered against the farmers by Railway Protection Force (RPF) and no case has been withdrawn.
The reply also read that there has been no order of case withdrawal received. This is happening despite an assurance by the union and state governments when we ended the agitation on Delhi borders,” he added.
He said that the RPF is continuously serving notices to the leaders in connection with the cases. In August, union’s Yamunanagar president was served summons by the force for allegedly blocking rail tracks during the agitation.