Farmers gear up for Jind mahapanchayat on Jan 26; meetings held in 2,500 Punjab villages

“Till now we have done meetings in 554 villages of Punjab and more meetings are likely to be conducted in the coming two days,” said Buta Singh Burjgill, president of BKU Dakaunda.

BKU Ugrahan is also conducting meetings in different districts of the state and till now, it has conducted meetings in more than 2,000 villages.

Also, at district level, a tractor march will be organised by farmers across the country.

Burjgill said, “On December 9, 2021, the Centre had given in writing to fulfill our six main demands following which we had lifted our agitation from Delhi borders on December 11, 2021. Though farm laws were repealed on November 19, 2021, even after more than a year not a single promise has been fulfilled. Hence this mahapanchayat has been organised to mobilise farmers and get our message through loud and clear.”

The main demands are – to quash all FIRs lodged during the farmer agitation against the now-repealed farm laws; to book Union Minister Ajay Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri violence case; to implement crop insurance scheme. The Centre had agreed that it won’t table the electricity amendment bill in Lok Sabha without addressing the grievances of farmers, power department employees and people from different walks of life, but it did not keep its word, said BKU Ugrahan general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan.

“Farmers from 19 districts connected to our union will be going to Jind on Republic Day. And for this we are holding meetings in villages. Already meetings have been conducted in more than 2,000 villages of Punjab. We plan to take at least one bus from each village,” he added.

He said the minimum support price on crops should become a legal guarantee and also the farmers should be paid for their produce as per the Swaminathan commission’s report.

“All the promises were made in December 2021, but none have been implemented,” said Darshan Pal, coordination committee member of SKM.