Farm laws: Thousands protest at DC, SDM offices in Gurdaspur

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, December 14

Thousands of farmers, including a sizeable number of women and children, staged protests today at the offices of the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner and Batala Subdivisional Magistrate.

The police had a difficult time in controlling the surging crowds and alternative arrangements had to be made to ensure that traffic flowed smoothly. Gurdaspur SSP Rajinder Singh Sohal and his team of officers remained ensconced at the site.

In Batala, DSP (City) Parvinder Kaur was tasked to ensure no untoward incident happened in or around the SDM office.

The farmers, who had started arriving at the DC office as early as 7 am, protested peacefully. The police officials were engaged in talks with farm union leaders since yesterday evening and extracted an assurance that everything would be done to ensure there were no law and order violations.

The protesters, time and again, made it clear that there were seeking a complete repeal of the three farm laws and also of the Electricity Act-2020. “Amendments will not do. All the controversial laws need a burial and a special session of Parliament should be convened for the purpose,” said Tarlok Singh Behrampur.

The leaders told the gathering that the contentious farms laws that aimed to double the farmers’ incomes in two years by deregulating agriculture markets may further widen the inequalities in the sector. “By weakening the government’s price guarantee system, these laws may end up hurting small and poor farmers who form 80 per cent of the sector and 23 per cent of whom live below the poverty line. The deregulation of Bihar’s Agriculture Produce Market Committees in 2006 proved to be a failed experiment. Hence, please do not replicate this across the country,” Behrampur said. In Pathankot, a similar protest was held at the DC office.