Delhi Police is on high alert and security has been tightened in the national capital in view of the Bharat Bandh call given by the SKM.
Farmers had held a massive protest in Delhi in 2020-21 against the farm laws, while were later repealed. (Randeep Maddoke/Wikimedia Commons)
The Gramin Bharat Bandh called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and other farmers’ unions affected normal life in rural areas, including in Haryana and Punjab, on Friday, 16 February.
Passengers were left stranded as buses did not ply in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Hisar, Jind and some other parts of Haryana.
The non-teaching staff of the Maharahi Dayanand University in Rohtak stayed away from work in solidarity with the farmers’ unions.
While many commuters in Punjab were left stranded as Punjab Roadways, Punbus and PRTC Contract Workers’ Union are supporting the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) bandh call.
In UP’s Muzaffarnagar, mandis remained closed as farmers stayed away.
The Delhi Police, meanwhile, fortified the borders, and ordered extra teargas shells.
The SKM called for the Bharat Bandh on Friday, February 16, citing a host of unmet demands of farmers.
According to the statement released by the SKM, it said that mass organisations of students, youths, women and all other sections, including agricultural workers, teachers, small traders, transport operators, professionals, and journalists have extended support to the industrial strike and the Gramin Bharat Bandh.
“The SKM considers the various Kisan organisations and platforms are also fighting for the same and common demands, hence, all of like-minded Kisan organisations should make an effort to build a common and united struggle on these issues,” it said.
Speaking to PTI, on Thursday, 15 February, Rajesh Tikaitat, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader, said, “We have called for a ‘Gramin Bharat Bandh’. Farmers should not go to their farms and work tomorrow. A new line of thinking will emerge out of this. Labourers will also go on strike. This will show how many people are participating in the movement.”
VIDEO | Here’s what Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait (@RakeshTikaitBKU) said on the call for ‘Bharat Bandh’ on February 16 by farmer unions.
“We have called for a ‘Gramin Bharat Bandh’. Farmers should not go to their farms and work tomorrow. A new line of thinking… pic.twitter.com/Ur3b9fICCX
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 15, 2024
The bandh is from 6 am to 4 pm on Friday, with the farmers expected to participate in sit-in protests on all major roads across the country.
Banks, offices, and many schools and colleges remained open despite the strike.
The protests are expected to be concentrated near Delhi, where the farmers have been marching towards the national capital as part of the “Chalo Delhi” march.
The Delhi Police is on high alert and security has been tightened in the national capital in view of the Bharat Bandh call given by the SKM.
Traffic may be affected in the national capital with barricades put up in several areas, according to the police.
The Delhi Police has deployed drones to keep an eye on the situation at the Singhu border and ordered more than 30,000 teargas shells from the Border Security Force’s (BSF) Tear Smoke Unit.
The “Chalo Delhi” march had been met with multiple layers of barricades, concrete blocks, iron nails and container walls placed at the Singhu and Tikri borders with Haryana as well as at the Ghazipur border with Uttar Pradesh.
The protests are putting pressure on the BJP-led Union government to fulfil their demands, including a law on a minimum support price for crops and loan waivers.
The talks held between the farmer unions and the government have remained inconclusive. A five-hour meeting was held on Thursday, 15 February, between three Union ministers and the farmer leaders.
The two sides will now meet on 18 February for the fourth round of talks. The two previous rounds of dialogue on 8 and 12 February also remained inconclusive.
Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai represented the Centre at Thursday’s meeting over the farmer unions’ various demands, including a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
The SKM on Wednesday, 13 February, in a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mentioned their demands including MSP for all crops based on the MS Swaminathan formula of C2+50 (input cost of capital+50 percent), the legal guarantee of procurement, debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff and no smart metres.
They also demanded free 300 units of power for farming, domestic use and shops, comprehensive crop insurance, and a hike in pensions to ₹10,000 per month among others.
“Your ministers have been hesitant to talk with the SKM while being more interested in talking with other platforms to project that the farmers’ movement is divided in order to escape from your constitutional responsibility of solving the problems that distress the farmers,” the SKM said.
Besides the above demands, the farmers are also protesting for the withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 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.
It said the Union government’s plans of obstructing and repressing the “Delhi Chalo” agitation is regrettable.
“The administration has barricaded the borders by erecting concrete barricades, iron nails, and barbed wires on the highways in the Punjab border. It has suspended the internet, imposed Section 144 and created an atmosphere of terror, thus treating protesters as if they are enemies of the country,” they said.
“As the Prime Minister of India, we urge you to show sympathy for the plight of farmers in the face of the severe onslaught of the corporate intervention in agriculture actively supported by the Union Budgets and departmental actions.
“We urge you to immediately address the demands raised by the SKM and initiate discussion in order to resolve the demands of the farmers of the country,” they said.
In another statement, the SKM called upon all “like-minded Kisan organisations” to make an effort to build a common and united struggle on these issues.
“We wish to recall the emergence of SKM as an issue-based united movement that had fought the anti-farmer and pro-corporate three farm laws and in the process farmers got united and we were successful with the active support of the workers and trade union movement of the country in pushing back the government,” it said.
(With PTI inputs)
Apr 25, 2024
Mar 12, 2024
Mar 12, 2024
Mar 11, 2024
Mar 06, 2024
Feb 22, 2024
