Journalism of Courage
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has invited representatives of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Monday to discuss their demands.
The invite for the meeting came amid the SKM’s call for a week-long sit-in in Chandigarh from March 5 in support of their various demands.
According to a letter from the chief minister’s office, shared by farmers, the SKM has been invited for a meeting, to be chaired by Mann, at the Punjab Bhavan.
The SKM, which led the 2020 agitation against the now-repealed three farm laws, is demanding the rejection of the Centre’s draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing, a legal guarantee to minimum support price as per the Swaminathan Commission report.
They are also demanding the implementation of the state’s agricultural policy, purchase of six crops including basmati, maize, moong, potato at MSP by the state government, a law for debt settlement, ensuring canal water to every field and the payment of sugarcane arrears.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three-day visit to Gujarat, will chair a meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) as its ex-officio chairman.
The NBWL has 47 members, including the Chief of Army Staff, members from different states, representatives from NGOs working in this field, chief wildlife wardens and secretaries from various states.
After the meeting, the PM will interact with some women forest staffers at Sasan, officials said.
The first session of the Karnataka legislature in the new year, set to begin on Monday, is expected to be a turbulent one amid divisions within both the ruling Congress and opposition BJP. Several key issues and bills are anticipated to be discussed during the session.
The 15-day session will commence with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s address to the joint sitting of the state legislature at Vidhana Soudha here on Monday.
Additionally, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds the finance portfolio, is set to present his 16th budget on March 7.
The session comes amid ongoing speculations, especially in the ruling Congress about the leadership change under a “rotational chief minister” or “power-sharing” formula, which is yet to subside. While Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar is seen as a key aspirant for the CM post, those supporting CM Siddaramaiah have been asserting that the incumbent will continue.
Karnataka Lokayukta giving clean chit to the Chief Minister and his wife in the alleged MUDA site allotment scam, may also come up for discussion.
Also, likely to figure among other issues is law and order situation, in the wake of incidents of crime, tension in Mysuru’s Udayagiri and police’s subsequent handling, alleged assault on a state-run bus conductor for not speaking Marathi in the border district of Belagavi escalating into a issue between two states.
The Assembly session in neighbouring Maharashtra, which also begins on Monday is also likely to be stormy one with the Opposition on Sunday boycotting the CM’s customary tea-party claiming the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government failed to addressed pressing issues.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Ambadas Danve, Sena (UBT) legislator and leader of the Legislative Council, said, they have issued several suggestions to the state government but none has been accepted or discussed.
“Be it the excess land allegedly given to the Adani Group for Dharavi slum redevelopment or French company Systra India accusing the MMRDA of ‘severe harassment’, the government shows little concern for people’s problems,” Danve said.
The Assembly session in Jammu and Kashmir is also set to begin on Monday.
CPI(M)’s student wing SFI has called for a strike in West Bengal colleges on Monday, demanding state Education Minister Bratya Basu’s resignation over the injuries of two protestors at Jadavpur University.
The windscreen of the minister’s car was smashed by protesters and two of the agitators were injured, one of them seriously, when the tyre of one of the vehicles in his convoy grazed past them on Saturday.
– With PTI inputs
