Centre must fulfil pending demands of farmers: SKM

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday said that the stand-off between farmers and the government continues as the Centre is forcing them to stay put at protest sites by not giving any formal communication with regard to their pending demands, an official statement said. They also demanded from the state government that it withdraw an undemocratic legislation, passed to curb farmers' protests in the state, called 'Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property During Disturbance to Public Order Act, 2021

New Delhi: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday said that the stand-off between farmers and the government continues as the Centre is forcing them to stay put at protest sites by not giving any formal communication with regard to their pending demands, an official statement said.

SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, said that farmers continue to wait patiently for positive developments and for the government to fulfill their legitimate demands such as a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops and compensation to families of farmers who died during the movement.

The stand-off continues with the government of India forcing protesting farmers to stay put at the morchas without any formal communication so far of acceptance with regard to their pending demands, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said in a statement.

It said that all pucca morchas (permanent protest sites) are continuing at dozens of toll plazas and other locations. The SKM also said that the President of India has given his assent to the farm laws repeal bill passed by both Houses of Parliament and a gazette notification has been issued to give effect to the repeal.

With this, one important battle has been formally ended, with the protesting farmers scoring a major first victory against their elected government, the SKM statement said. On Monday, the central government has passed a Bill in Parliament to repeal three contentious farm laws, which triggered a year of protest by farmers at Delhi's border points.

The farmers' body added that the central government continues to say it has no records of deaths of protesting farmers. SKM reminds the government delegation that they stood in silence to pay homage to the martyrs during formal talks last year. This movement has a record of all the brave martyrs and is waiting for the government to fulfill the demand for rehabilitation of the kin of the martyrs, the statement said.

Farm unions associated with SKM in Haryana held a meeting on Wednesday and in addition to reiterating the six pending demands from SKM, they pointed out that the Haryana government is expected to repeal the state-level amendments to the Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act 2013 (LARR 2013), it said.

They also demanded from the state government that it withdraw an undemocratic legislation, passed to curb farmers' protests in the state, called 'Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property During Disturbance to Public Order Act, 2021', the SKM said.

Repeal of farm laws was one of the main demands of thousands of farmer protesters. But the stalemate continues as other demands of farmers such as legal guarantee on MSP, compensation to families of farmers who died during the movement, and withdrawal of cases against them are still to be met.

PTI