NEW DELHI: A joint alliance of farmers and workers has announced a mega rally on Wednesday from Ram Lila Maidan in the national capital. According to the organisers approximately three lakh people facing hardships in different sectors under the current central government will take part in the protest march towards Parliament.
But heavy rain in the national capital for the last three day might dampen the intensity of the protest. Three major organizers All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) have joined hands to take part in the rally."With just nine months left for the general elections and now the Modi government is making claims to find solutions to grave farmer distress plaguing the country.
Previous governments have also not done much but present is the worst. Therefore to make the present government understand the plight of farmers we are going to take out this rally in which lakhs of people will take part" said Hannan Mollah, General Secretary (AIKS). The unions are claiming that thousands of farmers have already reached the national capital and staying at different camps setup at Ramlila Maidan and Sahibabad area of NCR, many protestors are also staying at Gurudwaras.
The organizers plan a similar kind of protest which was witnessed in Maharashtra when scores of farmers marched from Nashik district to Mumbai. This march in Delhi is different as minimum wage workers and others are also going to join the protest the main demands of the protest would be wages not less than Rs 18,000 per month, generating of decent employment, debt waiver for poor peasants and agricultural workers and universal social security among others.
"Conditions are deteriorating in this section of the society, issues of the peasants are not being looked at. The present government has also brought down the number of days provided to work under MNREGA. There is ground swell of anger and if someone tries to raise their voice they are branded anti-nationals" said K. Hemalata President of the CITU.