Amritsar: Farmers, supported by women, under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee started their ‘rail roko’ protest on the railway tracks near Devidaspura village demanding complete loan waiver of farm community and fulfillment of other demands.
The committee leaders stated that the protest on the railway tracks would continue till their demands were accepted by the government. The protesters have started organizing langars and pitched their tents near the railway tracks.
KMSC president Satnam Singh Pannu and general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said in a meeting with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on September 29, he had promised to resolve all issues related to agriculture.
They stated that the protest was initiated as the state government had failed to honour the promises made to them. The KMSC leadership stated that if the government failed to listen to them, protests would be initiated at three more places.
Pandher said in the last 50 years, the prices of agriculture produce had increased by 80 per cent, but at the same time the input costs have increased by more than 300 per cent. “Farmers are unable to repay their loans taken from banks as farming is no more a profitable venture,” he added.
The farmer leaders stated that the Swaminathan Commission had recommended 50 per cent over the input costs of the farmers, but the subsequent governments have failed to implement the guidelines of the commission set up under the Constitution.
The KMSC is also demanding a compensation for crop damaged by hailstorm, jobs for kin of those who died during the protest at Delhi borders and Rs 5 lakh as compensation, payment of arrears of sugarcane crop, increase of sugarcane prices to Rs 360 per quintal, withdrawal of cases against farmers during the farmers’ agitation, filling of vacant posts in government departments, ownership rights to the cultivators and repeal of agreements with power companies.
Tarn Taran: Farmers and mazdoors under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), Punjab, started their ‘pakka morcha’ by staging a dharna on the railway tracks here on Monday.
The farmers were on agitation path against the state government demanding the fulfilment of the promises made to the people of the state in the run-up to the 2017 election.
While addressing on the occasion, Sukhdev Singh Dubli and Tarsem Singh Dhaliwal and others said Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had categorically denied waiver of the whole loan of the farmers, which was at top of the Congress’ 2017 election manifesto. The leaders said the state government had not given even a single penny to the unemployed youth who had been denied jobs while the unemployment allowance too was one of the promises in the manifesto.
They said similarly many other promises were not fulfilled so far and the KMSC would them to the notice of the state government, particularly Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi who was telling a bundle of lies to fool the residents and the farmers that he had fulfilled all the demands of the farmers and other sections of society. The protesting farmers would remain at the dharna site in the night. The Tribune
