AMN/ WEB DESK
After more than a year of protesting at Delhi’s borders, the farmers’ union has called off the protest against the three farm laws. Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chadhuni said, “The Samyukta Kisan Morcha-led farmers’ agitation is being suspended because the Centre has agreed to our demands.” However, he warned that the agitation could be resumed if the Centre “backtracks from its promises”.
In the letter dated December 9 to Samyukt Kisan Morcha, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal has promised the unions that the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments had already committed to retracting all criminal cases against farmers.
“All cases filed by the government and government agencies against farmers and their supporters in Delhi and other UTs will be taken back with immediate effect,” the Centre said in the letter.
The SKM said it would mark December 11 as victory day and start vacating Delhi borders from that day. The announcement regarding the end of the agitation flows from the union agriculture secretary’s letter which added that the Haryana and UP governments had principally consented to compensating families of deceased farmers, so had the Punjab government.
The government also assured stakeholders comprehensive discussions on the Electricity Amendment Bill, including with SKM representatives. “Only after discussions will the bill be piloted in Parliament,” agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal said. He said the liability of farmers regarding stubble burning had already been done away with.
On MSP guarantee, the Centre reiterated the Prime Minister’s promise of a committee saying the panel would discuss ways of ensuring MSP and would have SKM representatives among farmers apart from representatives of the Centre, states an agricultural scientists and economists.
Agarwal said the government had already assured continued procurement on MSP. “The proposals address the five pending demands of farm unions. There is now no justification to continue the farmers’ agitation. We, therefore, urge you to call off the agitation,” the agriculture secretary said in the letter to the unions on Thursday hours before the SKM withdrew the agitation that started on November 26, 2020 making it the longest in the history of independent India.
However SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said, “The andolan has been suspended. The Unions will meet on January 15 to review if the government implements the proposals agreed upon.”
Before the meeting, Ashok Dhawale, part of the five-member SKM committee, said they had received a formal communication from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. “The signed letter will now be placed before farm unions in the SKM meeting and a decision regarding lifting of morchas will be announced post the meeting,” he had said.
The protests began on November 25 last year, when thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, marched towards the national capital, demanding a complete repeal of three contentious legislations — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
On November 19 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the three laws would be scrapped. Subsequently, they were repealed in Parliament.