Kisan Diwas: Farmers Intensify Protests Ahead Of National Farmer’s Day
New Delhi:
Before Kisan Diwas, peasant leaders are expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss an action plan as thousands of people gathered at protest sites on Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Farmers protest the new agricultural laws of the center for almost a month amid the cold wave that hits the national capital. Unions are making efforts to enlist the support of farmers in other states such as Bihar for their demand to enact a law guaranteeing the Minimum Support Price (MSP). India celebrates Kisan Diwas or National Farmer’s Day on December 23, in memory of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the great kisan leader and fifth prime minister of the country.
On Monday, farmers went on a relief hunger strike at various protest sites in batches of 11. In the letter to 40 farmers’ union leaders, the Deputy Secretary of the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Vivek Aggarwal, on Sunday asked them to specify their concerns about their previous proposal for amendments to the laws and to choose a convenient date for the next round of talks so that the ongoing turmoil can end as soon as possible.
The sixth round of talks on December 9 was canceled after a stalemate in which farmers’ unions refused to give in on their demand to repeal all three laws.
Kisan Diwas 2020: Farmers protesting for almost a month amid the cold snap in Delhi
Due to the ongoing turmoil, the Delhi Traffic Police said the Singhu, Auchandi, Piau Maniyari and Mangesh borders are closed. He advised travelers to take alternate routes across the school toll tax borders of Lampur, Safiabad Saboli and Singhu. Police said that as traffic has been diverted from Mukarba and the GTK road, people are advised to avoid the outer ring road, the GTK road and the national road 44.
Those traveling to Haryana can traverse the borders of Jharoda (single carriageway), Daurala, Kapashera, Badusarai, Rajokri NH-8, Bijwasan-Bajghera, Palam Vihar and Dundahera. According to the traffic police, the Tikri and Dhansa borders are also closed to traffic, but the Jhatikara border was open only to two-wheelers and pedestrians. At the Chilla border, the Delhi-Noida causeway is open to traffic. However, the causeway from Noida to Delhi is closed. The Ghazipur border was also closed to traffic.
Enacted in September, the three agricultural laws have been projected by the central government as major reforms in the agricultural sector that will eliminate middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.
However, protesting farmers have expressed fear that the new laws would pave the way for removing the MSP’s safety cushion and ending the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations. The government has repeatedly claimed that the MSP and mandi The systems will be maintained and he has accused the opposition of misleading farmers.
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