SKM urges farmers to continue struggle till all demands are met
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Nov, 2022 12:58 PM
New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday exhorted the farmers to join the nationwide "March to Raj Bhawans" programmes and submit a memorandum to the President through the respective Governors on November 26.
Earlier, on November 14, SKM's National Council held a meeting at Gurudwara Rakabganj and strongly condemned the Modi government for betraying the farmers by not implementing the written assurances made on December 9, 2021 for legally guaranteed MSP, withdrawal of the Electricity Bill, among other demands.
The meeting resolved to advise all constituent organisations to be prepared to further intensify the struggle across the country.
"March to Raj Bhawans" marks the beginning of the next phase of the farmers protest.
Also, it appealed to farmers across the country to join continuous and committed nationwide struggles till all the demands including "Karz Mukti - Poora Daam" (Freedom from Indebtedness and Full Remunerative Price) are fulfilled by the government.
Legally guaranteed MSP for all crops and freedom from indebtedness are the major demands for which the farmers have been fighting since the rollout of neo-liberal policies that aggravated the agrarian crisis and peasant suicides.
Since 1995, more than 4 lakh farmers have died by suicide in India and around 68 per cent of the peasant households are in debt and financial distress. These demands, along with the demands of repeal of three pro-corporate Farm Laws and the Electricity Bill 2020, led to the year-long historic farmers' movement at the Delhi borders from November 26, 2020, which was actively supported by nearly all sections of the working people in India.
Farmers' demands also include withdrawal of Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, dismissal and legal action against Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni who is accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre of farmers, and a journalist, besides a comprehensive and effective Crop Insurance Scheme to speedily compensate farmers for crop loss due to natural calamities among others.
The morcha held a press conference this afternoon which was addressed by Darshan Pal, Hannan Mollah, Yudhvir Singh, Avik Saha and Ashok Dhawale. The next meeting is scheduled on December 8 in Karnal where the next phase of the movement will be decided and announced.
In a seemingly bizarre incident, nearly 150 cartons of chocolate bars of a popular brand have been stolen from a godown by unidentified miscreants in the Chinhat area in Lucknow. The godown belongs to businessman Rajendra Singh Siddhu, who is a distributor of a multinational chocolate brand in the city.
At around 8 am on August 10, some miscreants gheraoed Anita when she was going to the school with her six-year-old son. To save herself, Anita entered the house of a person named Kalu Ram Regar and dialled 100 for help. However, the police did not reach the spot. After this, the accused set Anita on fire by pouring petrol on her.
The minister said that the Central Sector Scheme Promotion of Agriculture Mechanization for In-situ Management of Crop Residue (CRM) was implemented by the state government from year 2018-19 to 2021-22.
According to Dhami, Jagdish Tytler is the main accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi who can never be forgiven by the Sikh community. "Visiting the Golden Temple while wearing a t-shirt with Tytler's picture on it is an act of annoying the Sikhs," said Dhami.
According to the police, the incident took place when the victims reached the other track to avoid the train coming from one side. All three died on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Faizan Ahmed, Adil and Sahul.
A day after convicts in the infamous Bilkis Bano case were released, Congress leader Manish Tewari on Tuesday took up the case of Sikh prisoners languishing in jails and called for a uniformity in the definition of remission policy. "There must be uniformity across the country about definition of life imprisonment & remissions permissible".
