CHANDIGARH: While the contentious farm laws stand repealed with President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday signing the bill passed for this purpose in Parliament on Monday, Punjab and Haryana farmer unions are in no mood to wind up their protest yet.
The Centre has asked them to send five names for the committee to be set-up to look into the demand of legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), but the farmer leaders want the government to send a formal letter in this regard. They also condemned the central government’s stand that no compensation could be paid since there was no data on death of farmers.
After a meeting of 32 Punjab farmers unions at Singhu border, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Harinder Singh Lakhowal said, “We have decided the names of farmer leaders that will be send, but till date the government has not sent a written communication and no details are available so far about what this committee is about, its mandate or terms of reference. In the absence of such details we cannot proceed further. There was just a telephone call to a union leader.”
Also, the farmers are adamant that they won’t return home until the government withdraws the cases registered against the farmers and also give compensation to those who had died during the agitation.
The SKM condemned Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s response in Parliament on Tuesday that there was no question of providing financial assistance as the government had no information about farmers’ death during the year-long agitation.
The SKM stated that the Union government continued to insult the sacrifice of the farmers by saying that it had no record of the deaths. The SKM reiterated its demand for compensation and rehabilitation of the kin of the farmers who died during the agitation and announced that morchas around Delhi borders would continue, with more tractor-trolleys reaching the protest sites.
The 25 farmer unions of Haryana, during a separate meeting at Singhu border, were unanimous that till the demands on Minimum Support Price, withdrawal of cases and compensation were met, the protest would continue.