Rakesh Tikait said a resolution was passed during the meeting asking the Samyukta Kisan Morcha to launch a tractor march to Delhi in the last week of February if the government does not accept farmers’ demands.
Farmers’ Dharnas: The ongoing protest started by farmers on 13 February does not seem to ebb down as it entered its fifth day on Saturday. Amidst the melee, Rakesh Tikait, the leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Saturday announced that farmers will stage dharnas in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttarakhand on February 21 to press their demands, including the pivotal “legal guarantee of MSP”.
Rakesh Tikait, while addressing the media in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh after attending a panchayat in Sisauli said a resolution was passed during the meeting asking the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to launch a tractor march to Delhi in the last week of February if the government does not accept farmers’ demands.
The panchayat condemned the police action against farmers in Haryana and Punjab. Haryana Police on Friday fired tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers when they moved towards the barricades at the Shambhu border near Ambala. Later in the day, Haryana Police released a series of video clips of several farmers purportedly pelting stones and attempting to provoke the security personnel at the Shambhu border.
It is being said that the Sisauli panchayat was held after the ongoing “Delhi Chalo” march called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha to press the government to accept their demands entered the fifth day on Saturday.
The first batch of farmers began their Delhi Chalo march from Punjab on Tuesday but were stopped by security personnel at Shambhu and Khanauri on Punjab’s border with Haryana. Since then the protesters have stayed put at the two border points.
The farmers are demanding a “legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP)” for crops and the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in 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.
Farmers will stage dharnas in four states, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttarakhand on February 21 to press their demands, said Tikait adding that the panchayat also passed a resolution asking the SKM to launch a tractor march to Delhi in the last week of February if the government fails to accept their demands.
Meanwhile, Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai will hold the fourth round of talks with farmer leaders on Sunday. The previous three meetings between the two sides held on February 8, 12, and 15 remained inconclusive.
Tikait has said his family members are ready to make any sacrifice for the cause of farmers. He said more than 30 members of the BKU from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttarakhand participated in the panchayat.
The farmers’ protest started after three farm acts, often called the Farm Bills, were passed by the Parliament in September 2020.
The three acts were the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020, and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.