Having secured “victory” in their fight against the central farm laws that have now been repealed, the farmers returning from protest sites at Delhi borders will lend shoulder to a protest by Village Khet Mazdoor Union Sanjha Morcha, which has decided to halt the movement of trains at nine different locations in state for four hours, from 12 noon till 4 pm, over their unfulfilled demands. The farm labourer unions will be joined in their protest by members of BKU Ugrahan - the largest farmers’ body of Punjab. Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union’s general secretary Lachman Singh Sewewala said a meeting they had with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on November 23 did not yield any results. “Our outstanding power bills are not being waived off. Electricity meters that were removed, have not been fixed again. Government is also silent over the policy of giving 5 marla plots to the needy. We waited for a few days after the meeting, but as CM has said nothing on these issues, we have decided to do rail roko on Sunday for four hours,” said Sewewala. A day ago, the labourer unions burnt effigies of CM in 101 villages across 13 districts. Bhagwant Samao from Mazdoor Mukti Morcha said, “Since labourers have no land, they don’t get loans easily from banks and turn to microfinance companies that charge heavy rates of interest. Many labourer families are reeling under debt. The CM has not given any satisfactory reply over waiving off the loans taken from microfinance companies. We have no choice but to get ourselves heard”. Mazdoor unions had participated actively in protest at Delhi borders and had also been regularly visiting the pakka morchas in Punjab. Shingara Singh Mann, senior vice president, BKU-Ugrahan said, “Our union stands in support of the farm labourers. We stayed together in our struggle at Delhi. Our members will be actively participating in the rail roko”. “Now that we are free from Delhi morcha, the Punjab CM should get alert. Our focus is on the complete loan waiver promise of Congress. He needs to get serious towards the demands of farmers and labourers,” Mann added. Channi is scheduled ti meet the 32 farmer unions on December 17 at Chandigarh. Buta Singh Burjgill, president of BKU Dakaunda, said, “We have not yet thought about extending support the rail roko as our members are still on their way back to Punjab. However, we will be meeting the CM where we will raise the demand for complete loan waiver."
