CHANDIGARH: Finally after sixteen years the farmers have been able to enter 'City Beautiful' as they are now commenced a five day long protest in centre of Chandigarh which might be extended it all depends. The farmers are pressing the AAP led Punjab Government to fulfill their demands, including the swift implementation of a comprehensive agriculture policy. Also the thirty two farmer unions of the Samyukat Kisan Morcha of Punjab, held a Mahapanchayat.
About a thousand farmers marched from Sector 34 to Matka Chowk to press for their demands, including the implementation of an agriculture policy by the Punjab Government, and handed over a memorandum to State Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian.
Farmer leaders said the Chandigarh Administration permitted a group of about a thousand farmers, including a number of women, to take out a march till Matka Chowk which was about five kilometers. Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan led the protest march that was joined by leaders of other outfits, including Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and Harinder Singh Lakhowal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal). Later the farmers boarded buses arranged by the administration and returned to Sector 34.
Khuddian later reached Matka Chowk and received a memorandum from the farmers after they insisted they would only hand it over to a minister and not any official. "The farmers are our brothers. We will go through the memorandum and I will also give it to the chief minister and, as a lawyer for the farmers, will present their views before him,” Khuddian said.
Ugrahan said his outfit’s programmes would continue and announce the next course of action on September 5. He hit out at the AAP Government and claimed there was no difference in some of the policies that the Bhagwant Mann dispensation was pursuing and what his predecessors did.
Referring to the Bharatmala projects in Punjab, Ugrahan said the development which the Centre claimed would take place by building major highways was actually going to be for the corporates. "These roads are not for us but to facilitate the corporates so that they can sell their produce and easily procure material from here, ‘’ he claimed.
Addressing the gathering at Matka Chowk, Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union said Centre should frame a law that gave a guarantee to the minimum support price (MSP). "Regarding the demands to the Punjab government, the demands are for a new agriculture policy. The government should talk to farmers and their leaders and frame a policy as we can give suggestions. There are many issues, including those pertaining to depleting ground water. What the state government can do on MSP, what recommendations it can give to the Centre on many issues pertaining to farmers and what policies it can frame on its own, these are various issues,’’ he said.
Referring to the Chandigarh Administration allowing the protest, Tikait said, "After 2008, farmers are here. There is good greenery here, you don’t need to erect a tent.”
Due to the farmers protest there was traffic chaos in the city, as Matka Chowk is a busy roundabout in the heart of the city. Meanwhile Sector 34 is also an educational and commercial hub. In view of the protest, many private coaching institutes today suspended classes .
Farmers from various parts of Punjab arrived in buses, tractor-trolleys and their personal vehicles and converged in to the city.
Meanwhile thirty two farmer unions of the Samyukat Kisan Morcha of Punjab, held a Mahapanchayat.
In the Mahapanchayat, issues related to water and agriculture crisis were the top priority of the speakers. Highlighting the need to formulate a water policy for the state to prevent depleted ground water table and pollution of rivers and other water sources, the speakers said that Punjabis should build a strong mass movement to get canal water to every farm and clean drinking water to every house.
There was also a demand to make the quantity of water from the canal outlets (moghas) as per the present needs and to construct the moghas according to the technical experts and the practical needs of the farmers instead the current defective design. Demanding to solve the issue of river waters on the basis of the riparian principle and the constitutional system, farmer leaders said that the Punjab government needs to pursue the right of ownership of the rivers. They also demanded the repeal of the Dam Safety Act.