SKM to gherao residences of Punjab BJP leaders to press Centre into accepting farmers' demands

Amid the ongoing farmers' protest, Several farmer outfits will gherao the residences of BJP leaders in Punjab for three days from Tuesday.

Ludhiana: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha will gherao the residences of BJP leaders in Punjab for three days from Tuesday to press the Centre into accepting the farmers' demands including a legal guarantee to minimum support price on crops, a leader of the outfit has said. Several farmer outfits, which are part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), have extended their support to the "Delhi Chalo" call given by SKM (Non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha. The march was stopped by security forces at Shambhu and Khanauri points on Punjab's border with Haryana which led to clashes.

Protesting farmers have stayed put at Shambhu and Khanauri for the sixth day after their march to the national capital was halted. A group of Union ministers and farmer leaders will hold a fresh round of talks with farm leaders on Sunday evening in Chandigarh. The two sides met on February 8, 12 and 15 as well but those talks remained inconclusive.

Balbir Singh Rajewal, a leader of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of various farmer unions, said they will stage protests in front of the residences of Punjab BJP leaders, including MPs, MLAs and district presidents, from Tuesday to Thursday. Interacting with reporters after a meeting of SKM leaders here, Rajewal said it has also been decided that they would protest at all toll barriers in the state and make them free for all commuters from February 20 to 22.

The SKM will not accept anything less than the C-2 plus 50 per cent formula for MSP as recommended in the Swaminathan Commission report, he said after the meeting which was also attended by farmer leaders Balkaran Singh Brar and Boota Singh, among others. The long-pending demands of farmers, the ongoing agitation by SKM (Non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha) and their multiple rounds of talks with Central ministers were also discussed in the meeting, Rajewal said.

He also said the SKM will hold a high-level meeting on February 22 in Delhi to chalk out future strategy on the demands put up earlier before the Centre during their agitation in 2021 against the now-repealed farm laws. "Our struggle will continue even if the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections comes into force," he said in reply to a question by reporters.

Besides a legal guarantee of MSP, the farmers are demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.