30,000 more farmers to leave for Capital today

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 10

With farmers rejecting the Centre’s draft proposal to amend the contentious agriculture laws, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee members have said the protest would be intensified.

A contingent of around 30,000 farmers and labourers on over 700 tractor-trailers and other vehicles will leave for the national capital on December 11 under the leadership of state president Satnam Singh Pannu and general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher.

Pandher said the Centre’s proposal was vague. “A group of 25,000 to 30,000 farmers from Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Moga will leave for Delhi on December 11 to join the protesters at the Kundli border from here. The core committee of the KMSC has been conducting meetings to decide the next course of action.”

Pannu said the Narendra Modi government was ‘insensitive’ and trying to divide the farm organisations by extending an invitation for talks to select farmer unions.

“We reject the suggestions of amendments put forward by the Central Government. We were not invited for the meeting scheduled with the Home Minister. We demand the enactment of a law guaranteeing government procurement of all crops,” he said. The farmer unions’ have been very clear and said they wouldn’t settle anything less than annulment of farm laws.