THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF will observe a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the state on September 27 supporting the call given by farmers’ unions for a nationwide bandh demanding the withdrawal of Centre’s farm laws. Briefing the media on Thursday, LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan said the hartal has been called to address people’s hardships and that the exams scheduled for the day will be postponed. The protest is against the skyrocketing fuel prices too.
The hartal comes at a time when the state is gradually inching back to normalcy, after the lifting of stringent Covid restrictions. Vijayaraghavan pointed out that the farmers have been staging agitation for the past one year. The new farm laws brought in by the Union government are against the country’s attempts to gain self-sufficiency in the food sector. Such laws will lead to corporatisation in the sector, he said.
To repeated questions on whether the state should be pushed into a hartal while many sectors are gradually opening after the Covid restrictions, Vijayaraghavan said the hartal will not affect the state’s economic growth. “It’s a democratic way of protest against the Union government’s anti-people policies,” he said. The Centre has failed to address these issues through discussions.
As part of the state-wide hartal, the LDF will organise protests by five-member teams across the state. Around five lakh people are expected to take part in the protest, which will be held adhering to the Covid protocol.