Detailed Plans For Upcoming Protest At Parliament: SKM

Detailed plans are being made by the farmers protesting against the new agri laws for their upcoming agitation outside Parliament every day during the monsoon session, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said on Monday.

“We want the opposition parties to ensure that the farmers’ agitation and their demands become the main issue and that the government is brought under pressure to fulfil them,” the SKM said in a statement.

The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions had announced on Sunday that a group of around 200 farmers will protest against the Centre’s three farm laws outside Parliament every day during the monsoon session, which is scheduled to begin from July 19.

It had said five people from each farmer union would be taken to join the protest.

“Detailed plans being made by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha for the protest at Parliament. Starting from July 22, every day, five protestors from each organisation associated with SKM will protest outside Indian Parliament,” the statement said.

The SKM has said it will also write to opposition parties to ensure that the farmers’ demands are heard.

“We want the opposition parties to ensure that the farmers’ agitation and its demands become the main issue and that the government is brought under pressure to fulfil our demands. We do not want the opposition to create ruckus or just walk out from the proceedings, but engage constructively inside Parliament, while farmers protest outside,” the SKM said.

The Morcha has also called for a nationwide protest on July 8 against the rising fuel prices, with their main demand being “Halve the prices of diesel, petrol and cooking gas”, alongside the farmers’ original demand of repealing the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price for their crops.

“At designated public places, protestors are expected to come with their vehicles that are to be parked on the roadside, with empty cooking gas cylinders. Here, they will protest with posters, placards and banners. This will be done between 10 am and 12 noon,” SKM said.

On July 1, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had asserted that the three central agriculture laws would bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers, and made it clear that the government was ready to hold talks with the protesting cultivators, except on the demand of the repeal of these laws.

Farmers have been camping at Delhi’s borders since November 2020, demanding that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee Minimum Support Price for crops. (PTI)