Farmers call off agitation after Centre accepts their demands; to vacate Delhi borders from Dec 11

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Thursday announced the end of farmers’ agitation with the Centre  making a final and decisive outreach to the agitating farmers promising to take back all criminal cases registered against them during the course of the agitation along with a purposeful discussion on ways to guarantee the MSP through representation in the committee Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Gurpurab Day.

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.

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“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 and 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.

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