NEW DELHI: Making it almost clear that the Centre is in no mood to blink on the agriculture laws in the face of the growing agitations, the BJP is unveiling a mega outreach programme with 100 ‘kisan chaupals’ across the country, beginning on Saturday, to make farmers aware of the legislations.
The party will rope in Union ministers, MPs, MLAs and other leaders for the farmers’ group meetings and pressers.“The outreach is aimed to counter the misinformation campaign hatched by the Opposition against the farm laws. We will hold 100 kisan chaupals across the country. There will be press conferences in each district. The BJP leaders will sit with the farmers at mandis to discuss the details of the farm laws enacted by Parliament,” BJP national general secretary Arun Singh told this newspaper.
On Thursday, the BJP had held a meeting to decide the next course of actions after the government called off the last scheduled meeting with the farmers. “The outreachwill spell out the benefits of the farm laws directly to the farmers.
Besides, all the measures taken for the empowerment of the farmers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre will also be brought during discussions at the meetings and mass-contact programmes, which will go down to the level of mandals (blocks),” Singh added. The BJP national general secretary also said that the PM-Kisan Nidhi Samman scheme, in which Rs 3,000 every four months are directly credited into the bank accounts of the farmers, will figure in the mass outreach programme.
“The campaign will last for one week during which all parts of the country will be covered so that the genuine picture on the farm laws is presented before the people,” the Rajya Sabha MP said. The BJP’s move to reach out to the farmers is coinciding with the flexing of muscles by the agitating farmers, who have threatened to block the Delhi-Rajasthan national highway on Saturday.
“The Modi government has done much more than any for the benefits of the farmers, which include the PM Fasal Bima Yojna in which the farmers now get compensation for even 33 per cent damage to the crops, which had earlier been 50 per cent,” said Singh.
Don’t test tolerance of cultivators: Sharad pawar
MUMBAI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday urged the government not to test the tolerance of the cultivators. The protest at Delhi borders may spread elsewhere if no timely decision is taken by the Centre, he said. The farm bills were passed in a “hurried” manner in Parliament despite the opposition parties calling for a detailed discussion, he added.”Today, farmers have made the extreme demand of withdrawing the laws first and said the issue can be discussed later. The Centre’s position on the same, however, does not seem to be favourable. Hence, there are signs that the deadlock may continue for some more days,” Pawar said. The veteran leader said that more people travelling in around 700 tractors joined the ongoing protest near Delhi border on Friday morning.
30,000 more protesters from Punjab head to Delhi
CHANDIGARH: With the deadlock between the protesting farmers and the Centre continuing, another group of nearly 30,000 protesters from different areas of Punjab started their journey towards the national capital on Friday morning.Packed in a large convoy of tractor-trailers, buses, cars and motorcycles loaded with eatables, the farmers, largely belonging to the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, started their journey from Amritsar city. En route farmers belonging to other districts are joining them. They will reach Kundli border on Saturday evening. “After a night halt in Shahbad (in Haryana), we will head straight
to Delhi,” Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee president Satnam Singh Pannu said.