New Delhi: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of farmers' unions, has called for a Bharat Bandh on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the enactment of the three farm laws.
"It was on September 27th that President Shri Ram Nath Kovind assented to and brought into force the three anti-farmer black laws last year. Tomorrow, there will be a total Bharat Bandh observed around the country from 6 am to 4 pm," SKM said in an official statement on Sunday.
The bandh will be observed from 6 AM to 4 PM during which all government and private offices, educational and other institutions, shops, industries and commercial establishments as well as public events and functions will be closed throughout the country, the SKM said.
However, emergency establishments and essential services, including hospitals, medical stores, relief and rescue work and people attending to personal emergencies will be exempted from the bandh. SKM has put out detailed guidelines and called for complete peace during the bandh and also appealed to all citizens of the country to join the Bandh.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has intensified patrolling and deployed extra personnel at pickets in border areas of Delhi. The traffic movement has been closed from Uttar Pradesh towards Ghazipur due to protest, Delhi traffic police said in a tweet.
"Patrolling has been intensified, extra personnel have been deployed at the pickets especially across the border areas and every vehicle entering the national capital is being thoroughly checked," a senior police officer told a news agency. He also said that adequate security arrangements will be made to maintain the law and order situation and no protestor will be allowed to enter Delhi from the three protest sites at the city's borders.
Meanwhile, the protesting framers on the Ghazipur border have completely blocked the Delhi-Meerut expressway. All the routes of the expressway have been closed and the traffic has also been diverted.
More than 500 farmer organizations, 15 trade unions, political parties, six state governments and varied sections of society have extended their support for the bandh. State governments of Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Punjab, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have also extended their support to the Bharat Bandh protest.
Left parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party and many other parties like Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, SAD-Sanyukt, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Swaraj India and others have extended their support to the Bharat Bandh.
Taking to Twitter, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also extended his support to the bandh and said that the non-violent movement of farmers' is intact today.
"Farmers' non-violent Satyagharh is intact even today and the government doesn't like it, that is the reason, Bharat is Bandh today," he tweeted.
Moreover, Central Trade Unions will organise a protest rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi at 11 am on Monday. Several bar associations and local units of the All India Lawyers' Union have extended their support.
Farmers have been protesting at different sites since November 26 last year against the three enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. Farmer leaders and the Centre have held several rounds of talks but the impasse remains.
(With agency inputs)
