CHANDIGARH: The farmers' organisations have ended their over year-long agitation after the Centre on Thursday handed over a revised proposal as demanded. This was announced by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha at the Singhu border on Thursday.
The farmers have said, they will vacate the Delhi borders on Saturday and will meet on January 15. Soon after the Centre's revised proposal came, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of the farmers' union spearheading the protests, huddled into a meeting to chart out the future course of action.
After the meeting, SKM leader and BKU (Lakhowal Group, Punjab) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal said, "We have announced to end our agitation on Saturday (December 11) and return to our native places in Punjab and Haryana. Then we will pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 13 and on December 15, the SKM will lift all the morchas from the protest sites on the toll plazas across Punjab where the farmers have been staging sit-ins for the past one year. The SKM will hold another meeting in Delhi on January 15."
The SKM on Thursday received a letter from the Union agriculture secretary, Sanjay Agarwal, on the legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP). The letter reads: "On MSP guarantee, the agriculture minister announced to form a committee in which there will be representatives of Centre and state governments, farmers unions and agricultural scientists. It is also made clear that it would have representatives of the SKM too. One of the mandates of the committee is to make sure how the farmers of the country will get the MSP. The government has already assured that the purchase will be carried on MSP only."
On the demands of withdrawal of cases on farmers, the letter said: "Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh governments have already committed to retracting all criminal cases against farmers. All cases filed by the government and government agencies against farmers and their supporters in Delhi and other UTs will be taken back with immediate effect,” the letter added.
On the issue of giving compensation to the 700 farmers who died in the agitation, the letter said: "Haryana and UP governments had principally consented to compensate families of deceased farmers, so had the Punjab government."
"The government will first hold comprehensive discussions with all the stakeholders, including SKM representatives, on the Electricity Amendment Bill and after that, it will be presented in the Parliament," the letter said on the proposed Electricity Amendment Bill.
On the point of stubble burning, the letter adds, "The liability of farmers regarding stubble burning had already been done away with the law passed. As in Section 14 and 15 of the law, there is no criminal liability on the farmers."
Meanwhile, the farmers at the Singhu and Tikri borders have started removing tents from the protest sites. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said he would go home only after all the farmers from Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country reach their homes safely. "We will stay here till the end. When every single person reaches home, only then the Gazipur protest site will be cleared."