Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann invites SKM leaders for meeting on March 3

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann called a meeting of the representatives of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on March 3 to discuss their demands, farmer leaders said on Saturday.

The invite for the meeting came amid the SKM’s call for a week-long sit-in in Chandigarh from March 5 in support of their various demands.

According to a letter from the chief minister’s office, shared by farmers, SKM leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal and Joginder Singh Ugrahan have been invited for a meeting, to be chaired by the Mann, on March 3 at the Punjab Bhavan here.

The SKM, which had led the 2020 agitation against the now-repealed three farm laws, is demanding the rejection of the Centre’s draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing, a legal guarantee to minimum support price as per the Swaminathan Commission report.

They are also demanding the implementation the state’s agricultural policy, purchase of six crops including basmati, maize, moong, potato at MSP by the state government, a law for debt settlement, ensuring canal water to every field and the payment of sugarcane arrears.

It is also demanding stopping “forcible” acquisition of land for the Bharatmala projects and a resolution against the National Education Policy.