33 farm unions closer to jointly opposing SYL canal survey

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 11

The historic unity of 33 Punjab-based farm unions, which led to the withdrawal of three farm laws brought by the Modi government in 2020, is being re-stitched to oppose the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal’s land survey.

Barring two of the 32 farm unions that formed the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), most of these have agreed to come back under the aegis of the SKM, during a commemoration ceremony held for agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan in Jalandhar on October 8.

Dr Darshan Pal of the SKM said a meeting had been scheduled for October 18. He said, “A majority of the farm unions, including a group of five unions led by Balbir Singh Rajewal, have agreed to protest on the SYL issue, defaming of farmers in the FIR registered against the management of NewsClick and no action being taken against the accused in Lakhimpur Kheri incident.”

Balbir Singh Rajewal, who along with four other unions had broken away from the SKM to contest the 2022 Assembly poll, said, “After the three farm laws were repealed, no government bothered about the farmers.” He said, “Only three or four unions, including the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) which joined the farmers’ stir independently, has not given its consent. We will jointly resist any attempt to take away our riparian rights.”

In the past two years, several big farm unions, including the BKU (Dakaunda), and the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) had witnessed a vertical split.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, chief, BKU (Dallewal), said his union would join only if the umbrella body decides to stay non-political. “Even, we are also concerned about the SYL issue. We will hold a convention on October 20,” he said.

Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan of Ekta-Ugrahan said, “We agree with others on the issue of NewsClick. However, the SYL issue is politically motivated. Only way forward is to have a new panel of experts to analyse the water flow in rivers.”