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Farmers' Protest News Highlights:The 'Delhi Chalo' farmers' protest at border points of New Delhi has entered the 27th day today. Agitating farmers have claimed that there is nothing new in the Centre's latest letter to them seeking a date for the next round of talks, as they held a day-long 'relay' hunger strike at all protest sites on Delhi's borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to press their demand for the repeal of the agri reform laws. The farmer leaders are expected to meet today to discuss the next plan of action, Gurmeet Singh of Krantikari Kisan Union said, amid efforts by the unions to draw support from farmers in other states like Bihar for their demand to enact a law assuring Minimum Support Price. Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi borders. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained. Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers’ union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming.
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Congress MLAs walk out of Uttarakhand assembly over farm laws
The Opposition Congress on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Uttarakhand Assembly in protest against the Centre’s new farm laws, saying they were meant to destroy farmers.
The Congress MLAs walked out when state Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal accused the party of being hand in glove with middlemen and fomenting the agitation to retrieve its lost political ground.
The Congress members led by Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh rose from their seats in protest when Uniyal said they did not seem to have read the new farm laws thoroughly and their party was misleading farmers to suit its own political ends.
Kerala Governor says 'no' to special assembly session for passing resolution against Central farm laws
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday declined approval for a special session of the state assembly to discuss and pass a resolution against the three contentious central farm laws, against which farmers have been protesting near Delhi, assembly sources said.
The session would not be held on Wednesday, as proposed by CPI-M led LDF government, since the Governor did not accord sanction, the sources told PTI.
As farmers'agitation against three farm laws entered its 27th day, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday he is hopeful that protesting unions would soon complete their internal discussions and resume talks with the government to resolve the crisis.
He met two more peasants'' bodies from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh that extended support to the legislations.
"Representatives of different farmers'' bodies had come to tell that the laws are good and are in the interest of farmers. They had come to urge the government not make any amendments to the laws," Tomar said after meeting the two groups.
"I am hopeful they (protesting farmers'' unions) will soon complete their internal discussions and come forward for talks. We will be able to find a solution successfully," the minister said.
Hundreds of vehicles queued up on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on Tuesday due to a demonstration by a group of farmers who came out on the road in support of the new agri laws, officials said.
The protestors, mainly residents of Jewar and Dadri in Greater Noida, were allegedly stopped by police at Mahamaya Flyover, the officials said.
Normal traffic movement on the Greater Noida-Noida route was restored after a disruption that lasted around three hours, they said.
"Normal traffic movement has resumed at the stretch near Mahamaya Flyover after a brief disruption,” a Noida Traffic Police official said.
Protesting farmers show black flags to Haryana CM in Ambala
A group of farmers protesting against the Centre''s new agri laws on December 22 showed black flags to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar when his convoy was passing through Ambala City, sources said.
Some of the farmers allegedly tried to block Khattar''s motorcade but police managed to provide a safe passage to the chief minister, sources said.
Khattar had come to Ambala to address public meetings in support of party''s mayoral and ward candidates for the upcoming civic bodies polls.
CPI(M) on Tuesday alleged thatTamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami was supporting the 'anti-people' policies of the Centre, like the farm laws, to save his government and post.The CM should have opposed the three 'anti-farmer' laws, which also deprive the rights of the state, for the benefit of lakhs of farmers in Tamil Nadu, the party's state secretary K Balakrishnan told reporters here.
He said the AIADMK government was silent on the issue of the Centre trying to 'impose' Hindi and Sanskrit on the people, neglecting the Tamil language.Balakrishnan said 10,000 teams of workers would go on a door to door campaign from December 25 to explain the 'wrong policies' of the NDA government, which, he said, would affect all sections of society.
The government on Tuesday appealed to farmers to hold further talks to break a nearly month-long deadlock over their demand for the repeal of agricultural reform laws, but farmers' leaders declined to relent unless these laws are withdrawn. "We assure our farmers that we'll listen to them with an open mind," Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday.
The government was "open" to amend the new laws, Tomar told foreign journalists. He, however, declined to say whether the government could consider withdrawal of these laws as demanded by protesters. Urging India's diaspora to help the government to convince farmers, Tomar said new policy changes would make agriculture more attractive for farmers. Protesters have been getting support from tens of thousands of overseas Indians mainly from Punjab, who have organised demonstrations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in support of the protests.
Delhi: Chilla border is closed for traffic coming from Noida & Gaziabad to Delhi because of farmer protests, say Delhi Traffic Police
The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and its associate unions will observe December 23 as "Skip Lunch" day to express solidarity with the relay hunger strike by farmers. "AITUC Unions to observe 23rd December as 'Skip Lunch' day to express solidarity with the relay hunger strike by the joint front of Kisan organisations," said Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, AITUC in a statement issued on Tuesday.According to the statement the central government is trying to sidestep the genuine demands of the farmers, the demands which are not only in the interest of farmers but are in the interest of the public at large and of course in national interest.
A group of farmers on Tuesdaystaged a protest outside the office of Mumbai suburban district collector over their demand for withdrawal of the Centre's three new farm laws. The protesters claimed the new laws would only benefit big corporates rather than the farmers. "We want farmer-friendly laws," one of the protesters said.
The protest was supported by the 'Prahar' organisation, headed by Maharashtra minister Bacchu Kadu. A group of farmers from the state has already left forDelhi to support the peasants who are protesting at borders of the national capital since November 26.
Armedwith hope and a revolutionary poem by noted Punjabi poet 'Pash', a farmer cycled nearly 400 km fromFardikotto theTikriborder here to join the massive protest by peasants against the new farm laws.Wearing akurta-pyjamawith a sleeveless warm jacket and sporting a bright green turban, PalSandhu, a resident ofRameanavillage inFaridkotdistrict of Punjab, on Monday listened intently to the speeches made by farmer leaders at the protest site near theDelhi-Haryanaborder.
His cycle, a new model decked up withcardboardsdisplaying the poem 'Sab TonKhatarnak' (the most dangerous )inPunjabibyAvtarSinghSandhuor 'Pash' as the revolutionary was famously known, attracted the attention of protesters and passers-by, many of whom took pictures with him."I felt restless back home," the 45-year-old said."I could not control myself after knowing about the condition of my fellow farmers who are braving the chilling winter and so many difficulties for a common goal. My brother had come a few days ago in a tractor-trolley, which is parked at theTikriborder protest site. I decided to leave too and rode till here on a bicycle,"SandhutoldPTI.
