Farmer’s agitation against land acquisition bill reaches Ballabhgarh

Traffic on the busy Mathura Road was affected as the farmers’ padyatra reached Ballabhgarh on Saturday. Social activist Anna Hazare on Friday had kicked off the padyatra from Palwal township.

Traffic on the busy Mathura Road was affected as the farmers’ padyatra reached Ballabhgarh on Saturday. Social activist Anna Hazare on Friday had kicked off the padyatra from Palwal township.

The yatra will reach Jantar Mantar on February 24, where Anna Hazare will join the dharna for two days.

Hazare had warned of a bigger agitation in the future after lashing out on the BJP for eradicating the provisions which had been offered taking the farmers’ consent earlier than buying their land.

The farmers from over a dozen states — Chattishgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh etc — are marching on foot highlighting their plight. The agitators want revocation of the Land Acquisition Ordinance promulgated by the NDA government led by Narendra Modi. The padyatra is being carried out under the banner of ‘Bhoomi Adhikar Chatavni Satyagrah Yatra’.

“This is just the beginning. A big revolution will start on February 24 in Delhi. After carrying out yatras and padyatras in every nook and corner of the country, a much bigger agitation will start at Ramlila Maidan within two to three months,” Hazare said.

It may be mentioned that the Ekta Parishad led by PV Rajagopal had twice in the past organised a massive march up to Delhi from Gwalior to highlight the plight of farmers.“The then Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh had to rush to Agra to negotiate with us as thousands of farmers marched towards Delhi in 2012,” said Deepak Goyal, local coordinator of the Ekta Parishad.