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Farmers say Hry govt agreed to demands, lift blockade
Addressing the farmers later, Samyukta Kisan Morcha leader Suresh Koth said the government had agreed to accept their demands and the farmers will get ₹6,400 a quintal
Protesting farmers on Tuesday agreed to lift the blockade from the Delhi-Chandigarh highway (NH44), saying that the state government had agreed to their demands, almost 31 hours after they started the blockade.
A central government official aware of the matter said the Haryana government will procure sunflower seeds at MSP (minimum support price). The expenses will be borne by the state as the Centre cannot give MSP on sunflower seeds to one state and deny the others, the official said.
“Negotiations were going on between the state government and the farmers. The Centre wasn’t involved,” the official said.
While briefing farmers about the status of their arrested colleagues and the cases registered against them, Kurukshetra superintendent of police Surinder Singh Bhoria said their demands had been accepted. The committee of farmers has been informed about the procedure to withdraw the cases, the SP said.
Addressing the farmers later, Samyukta Kisan Morcha leader Suresh Koth said the government had agreed to accept their demands and the farmers will get ₹6,400 a quintal. He said that the government has agreed to pay the difference between the MSP and the retail price ( ₹5,800) they were getting currently.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait congratulated farmers, terming it a victory of their patience and unity. He said that all the farmers are united even if they have different flags and unity is a must to continue the fight for MSP across the country.
Meanwhile, BKU (Charuni) state president Suman Hooda said, “If the government fails to fulfil its promise, the farmers will not hesitate to resume the agitation from the same highway,”
Reacting to the developments, advocate Chitwan Godara who is the head of BKU’s legal cell said that as per the assurance from the Kurukshetra administration, the arrested farmers will be released by Wednesday evening. “The cases registered against them (the farmers) will be withdrawn and they will be released by Wednesday evening,” said Godara.
The administration had accepted the demands in the third meeting with the three members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and three from the local committee.
Soon after the announcement, the farmers agreed to lift the blockade and traffic was restored on NH44, which was blocked since 2pm on Monday.
To assist the commuters, traffic was diverted via links roads but most of those could not accommodate the heavy lead, which led to long snarls.
The commuters had to suffer in the scorching heat as they remained stuck as most of the arterial roads in the Kurukshetra and Karnal districts remained blocked.
Nearly 50,000 vehicles cross the arterial highway that connects Delhi with the north Indian states in 24 hours. Due to the blockade, commuters had to travel 30-50km extra and had to spend several hours more.
