Farmers announce ‘Parliament March’ in first fortnight of May

by Abbas Adil

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Wednesday announced a “Parliament March” in the first fortnight of May. The date for the march is yet to be decided. This is yet another symbolic protest against the three contentious farm laws, which have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, farmers have time and again expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

KEY POINTS

  • The ‘Parliament March’ will be joined not just by farmers, but also by women, and unemployed individuals, and labourers who have been supporting the movement. 
  • Farmer leader Gurnaam Singh Chaduni said the march would be carried out in a “peaceful” manner, and special care would be taken that “what happened on January 26 is not repeated”. 
  • Farmer leaders are also planning to form a committee to control protesters if there is police action in parliament march. 
  • “We will form a committee to let the protestors know what to do in case there is police action during the march. “It will also be made clear to them that SKM condemns all kinds of violence. So the protestors will know that if there is any damage of property by them, they will have to serve the penalty,” a farmer leader said.
  • Farmer leaders also announced their plans to block the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway for 24 hours on April 10.
  • “We will be blocking the KMP expressway on April 10 for 24 hours, that is from 11 am on April 10 to 11 am on the next day. “We will be doing this because the government has not been listening to us. It has been sleeping. This is to wake up the government,” another farmer leader said.

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