Demands of the farmers include withdrawal of cases filed during the 2020-21 stir against now-repealed farm laws and for burning paddy straw.
Published Nov 27, 2023 | 11:48 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 27, 2023 | 11:48 AM
Farmers protest in 2020. (Wikimedia)
On the eve of the third anniversary of the anti-farm laws stir farmers from different parts of Punjab and Haryana gathered at the Mohali-Chandigarh border under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of various farmer unions, beginning their three-day nationwide protest for a legal guarantee of MSP (minimum support price).
Heavy security arrangements were made ahead of the protest and traffic was diverted to alternative routes on some roads.
These farmers have been demanding the withdrawal of cases filed against them during the 2020-21 stir against the now-repealed farm laws and for burning the paddy straw, compensation and jobs for any one of the family members of farmers who died during the stir, extension of MSP to other crops, loan waiver, ₹10,000 pension per month for farmers aged 60 and above, free electricity and withdrawal of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, compensation for crops damaged by floods and pest attacks and action against Union Minister Ajay Misra in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
Farmers have announced they will march towards Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh on Monday, 27 November, to give a memorandum of their demands to the Punjab Governor.
The Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Police have beefed up security near the Panchkula-Chandigarh and Mohali-Chandigarh border, erecting barricades and stationing water cannons, riot control vans to prevent farmers from entering Chandigarh. Apart from police jawans, Rapid Action Force and paramilitary forces have been roped in.
Farmers from many parts of Punjab, including Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Amritsar, Muktsar and Sangrur, today began gathering on the Mohali-Chandigarh border along the Phase-11 in Mohali and the IISER Chowk road.
Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal while talking to South First said that hundreds of farmers have already reached the protest site and many are still on their way on tractors.
“Union government has not fulfilled the promises made two years ago when they called off their historic protest”, he added.
Farmers were seen coming on tractor-trolleys with a cargo of essential items such as ration, bedding, utensils, cooking gas, and cylinders for the three-day protest resembling a Singhu-Tikri border-like gathering.
The Chandigarh Police in a traffic advisory said the roads from the Faidan barrier on Purv Marg leading towards the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali will be closed temporarily in view of the stir till 28 November.
Police advised commuters going towards the airport, Aerocity, and Bestech Mall to take a right from the Faidan barrier and then a left from Sector 46/47/48/49/Chowk straight towards Airport Road in Mohali.
Similarly, commuters going to Patiala, Sangrur, and Sirsa side from Chandigarh are being advised to go from the Sector 29 roundabout (Tribune Chowk) towards Zirakpur.
Traffic police also advised the general public to avoid the road towards the international airport from Sector 29 roundabout (Tribune Chowk) side (Purv Marg), and take alternative roads if required to go to other places.
Recently, farmers blocked a national highway and a train track in Jalandhar for four days, demanding a ₹70 per quintal increase (₹380 to ₹450 ) in the sugarcane prices, on Friday, 24 November called off their protest after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann assured them of “good news” in the coming days.
Mann however appealed to farmers to abstain from blocking roads and rails now and then as it made the common man suffer.
