CHANDIGARH: Protesting farmer unions on Friday threatened to intensify their agitation if the Centre does not accept their core demands of repealing the three contentious farm laws and legal guarantee for the minimum support price system during their next round of talks on Monday. From a tractor march to an awareness drive, the unions finalised a clutch of programmes to scale up pressure on the Centre.
On the 37th day of protests, a meeting of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions, decided to hold their twice-postponed tractor march at Kundli-Manesar-Palwal on January 6 if Monday’s talks fail to offer any headway. A national awareness programme, called Desh Jan Jagruti Abhiyan, from January 7 to 20 to counter the Centre’s narrative, was part of the basket of initiatives decided by the morcha, said Yogendra Yadav, president of Swaraj India.
“We will intend to announce dates for shutting all malls and petrol pumps in Haryana if the talks fail,’’ said another farmer leader. During the last round of talks, the Centre accepted two of their four demands — on stubble burning penalty and electricity tariff — but the core issues were left unaddressed.