Delhi braces for another round of farmers' protest: what are their demands?

Farmer organisations slammed the Centre for not holding talks with protesting farmers to resolve their issues since the last round of negotiations failed.

Delhi is bracing for yet another round of protests by farmers' organisations. Their members will start their march towards the national capital on Monday, December 2, news agency ANI reported.

Farmers raise slogans during a Maha Panchayat or grand village council meeting as part of a farmers' protest to press for the better crop prices. (File image)(REUTERS)

Sukhbir Khalifa, leader of Bhartiya Kisan Parishad (BKP), said on Sunday that the members will begin their march towards Delhi on Monday, demanding fair compensation and better benefits under the new agricultural laws.

“We are ready for our march towards Delhi. Tomorrow, on December 2, we will start our march from under the Maha Maya flyover in Noida. By noon, we will reach there and demand our compensation and benefits as per the new laws,” Khalifa told news agency ANI.

The BKP's march is in addition to similar protests by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM, non-political), whose members will begin marching to Delhi starting December 6. Farmer organisations in Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu will also hold symbolic marches towards respective legislative assemblies on the same day.

Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said farmers protesting at the Shambhu border (Punjab-Haryana border) will join the other farmers on December 6. These farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points since February 13, when attempts to march towards Delhi were stopped by security forces deployed at the capital's borders.

The first “jatha” of farmers will be led by farmer leaders Satnam Singh Pannu, Surinder Singh Chautala, Surjit Singh Phul and Baljinder Singh. This group will carry all essential items and will march towards Delhi “peacefully”. The farmers will walk daily from 9 am to 5 pm and spend the nights on the road. The group will stop at the Jaggi city centre in Ambala, the Mohra grain market, Khanpur Jattan and Pipli in Haryana.

What are their demands?

Besides a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP), the protesting farmers have been demanding a farm loan waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

A delegation from the Union government, comprising Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai, held talks with protesting farmers on February 18. The farmer leaders then rejected the Centre's proposal to buy pulses, maize, and cotton at the MSP by government agencies for five years.

Pandher slammed the Centre for not holding talks with protesting farmers to resolve their issues since the last round of negotiations failed. “They have stopped the talks with us. Contract farming is not acceptable to us. We are demanding a legal guarantee on the MSP for crops,” he said.