Chandigarh: Punjab farmers, protesting the AAP government's failure to implement an agriculture policy since Sunday, will march towards the state Assembly today. Thousands of farmers and farm labourers, belonging to the Bharti Kisan Union-BKU (Ugrahan) and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a group of 37 unions, have been camping here. Farmers belonging to the BKU (Ugrahan) will march towards the Punjab Legislative Assembly, which is assembling on Monday for the three-day long monsoon session, to lodge their protest.
BKU (Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said the farmers would march towards the Vidhan Sabha to hand over a memorandum of their demands to the Chief Minister and Opposition leaders. A meeting that lasted three hours was held between the administration and the union leaders earlier today to stop the march, but no consensus could be reached.
Meanwhile, farmers belonging to the SKM, who also gathered along with the BKU (Ugrahan) at the protest site at Sector 34 ground, the city’s hub, will hold a ‘mahapanchayat’ later in the day. The protesters have been allowed to stage protests at the camping site. The farmers are expected to camp here till September 5 after which they decide future course of action. Besides implementing agriculture policy, the demands of the BKU (Ugrahan) include overcoming the delay in land distribution to landless labourers and farmers and debt waiver for them.