To firm up joint course, farm unions to meet in Patiala today
Following a unity call, a meeting of all major farmer unions of Punjab will be held at Patran in Patiala district on Monday. The meeting was earlier scheduled for January 15.
Protesting farmer dies
Jagga Singh (80) of Godara village in Faridkot died at Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, on Sunday. He had suffered a paralytic attack during the protest at Khanauri morcha 10 days ago and was shifted to Rajindra Hospital for treatment.
The outfits, including Samyukt Kisan Morcha (All-India), will “discuss the united way ahead” to press the Centre for “another round of dialogue with them”.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) leaders have been holding rounds of protest in Punjab and Haryana following the deadlock between the Centre-led panel and the farmer union members over various issues, including MSP.
The two groups have been holding fort at Shambhu and Khanauri, with the majority of other unions maintaining a distance. The national highway near Shambhu remains blocked due to the agitation as the Haryana Police raised barricades to prevent the protesters from entering their state.
The other unions in Punjab had occasionally stayed away from the agitation as they felt they were not consulted. On tomorrow’s joint meeting, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, state president, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), said, “We will meet tomorrow at Patran and discuss the way forward. The idea is to unite all factions who have the same aim. Differences, if any, will be sorted out. “We have already handed over a charter of eight points to be discussed in detail. We will ensure unity to press the Centre to accept our long-pending demands,” he told The Tribune.
In view of the deteriorating health of farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast for 48 days, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) leaders had requested that the joint meeting of all farm unions be held at Khanauri near Patran on Monday.
During the Moga “mahapanchayat” on Thursday, the SKM (All-India) had passed the “Ekta Resolution”, emphasising the need for broad unity among various unions to press for their long-standing demands.
On Friday, after meeting Dallewal, all three forums — SKM (All-India), SKM (Non-Political) and KMM — had decided to sit together and chalk out the future strategy. Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and justice for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during the agitation in 2020-21, among others.
In February 2024, Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders had met several times but the talks remained inconclusive, leading to protest by the two unions.