SKM lifts all dharnas, ‘will protest outside houses of AAP MLAs on March 10’

The decision to hold protests came at a meeting of the SKM Punjab chapter held at Karnail Singh Issru Bhawan in Ludhiana Thursday afternoon.

Kul Hind Kisan Sabha president Baldev Singh Nihalgarh said, “We have lifted all dharnas from various highways of Punjab Thursday evening. After the Punjab Police stopped farmers from entering Chandigarh on Wednesday, they sat on dharnas where they were stopped. However, on March 10, the SKM Punjab chapter will organise dharnas outside the houses of all AAP MLAs of Punjab to let them know about our demands related to the Punjab government.”

BKU (Lakhowal) president Harinder Singh Lakhowal said the SKM would hold a meeting at Kisan Bhawan in Chandigarh on March 15 to discuss the next course of action.

“However, we challenge the Punjab CM to debate on the farmers’ demands. The CM is lying that all our demands are related to the Union government and not the state government, but we can debate with him on this issue. He can tell us a date, time and place, and five members of the SKM will debate with him and his team about how our demands were not related to the state government. On March 3, we had gone to discuss with him Punjab-specific demands, but he walked out abruptly.”

During the interaction with the chief minister on March 3, the SKM had given a memorandum of 18 demands, of which 17 were related to the state government, a farmer leader said, adding that the 18th demand was from the Union government — seeking the quashing of the Draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM) and the implementation of old demands agreed by the Centre in December 2021.

BKU Dakaunda (Burjgill) president Buta Singh Burjgill said, “We all have experience of over 40 years in the farming sector, and a few even have over 60 years. It has never happened before when farmer union leaders were treated like this. The CM called us for a meeting and then insulted us. Then, he sent policemen to our houses and detained many of us. This is humiliating and doesn’t behove to the CM.”

“Moreover, the CM had agreed on 12 demands on December 20, 2023, at a meeting held at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh but never implemented them. Over time, these demands increased to 18. It is unacceptable that the CM says the demands are not related to the state, so why did we sit and discuss with him?” Burjgill added.