CHANDIGARH: Two days ahead of the parliament session, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Saturday decided to postpone its proposed tractor march to parliament scheduled for November 29 from the Tikri border. But the morcha said it would review the decision at its next meeting on December 4.
The farmers’ body made it clear that their protest would continue till their pending demands were met and wanted the government to give a written assurance about giving legal guarantee for the procurement of crops at the Minimum Support Price. “We have decided to postpone the proposed tractor march to parliament as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced that the government will repeal the three farm laws, which has been cleared by the union cabinet,” said Darshan Pal, a senior SKM member after a meeting of the morcha. Pal said the government should withdraw the cases filed against the farmers.
“We had written to the prime minister for withdrawal of the cases against farmers, allotment of land for building a memorial for farmers who lost their lives during the protest, sacking of minister of state for home Ajay Mishra over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, along with other issues,” Pal said. He said as there was no response to these demands, their protests would continue.
“Our protest will continue till our six pending demands are not accepted. We have written an open letter to the Prime Minister and the SKM will wait for the government’s response. Depending on that we will review the further course of action at our next meeting on December 4.” The SKM had earlier announced that 500 farmers would participate in a peaceful tractor march to parliament every day during the winter session starting on November 29.
The farmers also demanded that the government should hold talks with them in a respectful way. Pal said no decision had been taken regarding lifting the boycott of political parties and their leaders during the campaigning in the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab. The SKM had told political parties not to campaign in the state. “We will take a decision in this regard at the next meeting on December 4 as this issue was not discussed in today’s meeting,” he said.