New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal, NCP, Shiv Sena, and some other opposition parties, including the Left parties, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe to ascertain the details of farmer deaths during the 'Kisan Andolan' against three agriculture laws.
In a letter to the speaker, leaders of various parties, including SAD, Shiv Sena, NCP, BSP, JKNC, RLP, CPI, and CPI-M, have urged his intervention in the matter. The letter came in the wake of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's statement that the Centre has no knowledge of farmer deaths.
The Opposition leaders said the minister's statement has hurt the sentiments of the farming community across the country and he should apologize as he has insulted the farmers. They said Tomar has stated in Parliament that the Centre does not have any record of the farmers who died during the ongoing Kisan Andolan at Delhi's borders.
The farmers have been protesting against three agriculture laws of the Centre and demanding their scrapping since November last year. Leaders of SAD and other parties are set to meet the president in this regard on Saturday morning.
'It is shocking that the 'annadaata' was subjected to this insult, despite clear-cut recorded proof of hundreds of farmers being martyred during the Kisan Andolan. It is even more appalling that the agriculture minister has gone on record to say that neither a study has been conducted to verify the numbers of these farmer deaths nor a study to understand the apprehensions in the minds of farmers regarding the three farms laws,' the leaders said.
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