To protest against the farmers’ distress and the policies of the Government towards rural areas, more than 250 farmers’ organisations under the banner of All India Kissan Sangharash Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) will observe a complete ‘Grameen Bharat Band’ on January 8, 2020.

The Committee declared that outflow of all kinds of essential commodities will be altogether stopped to the cities and in urban areas, and nothing will be allowed to reach villages from cities on that day.

“Big rallies, meetings, massive flag marches shall be organized in the villages, small towns, and outflow of all kinds of essential commodities like grain, milk, vegetables, fruits, and fodder etc will be altogether stopped to the cities or urban areas, and in the same way, nothing will be allowed to flow from the cities to the villages on that day. To make this event a perfect success and more effective, all means of transports will be made standstill,” announced the leaders of 10 farmers’ organisations active in Punjab which are the part and parcel of AIKSCC.

The organisations include Jamhoori Kissan Union, Punjab, AIKS (Ajoy Bhawan), AIKS, Punjab; Kirti Kisaan Union, Punjab, Punjab Kissan Union, Kissan Sangharash Committee, Punjab, Azad Kissan Sangharash Committee, Punjab, BKU (Dakaunda), Krantikari Kissan Union, Punjab; Jai Kissan Andolan, Punjab.

The farmer leaders said that a notice regarding this ‘Grameen Bharat Band’ on January 8 will be sent to the President on January 3, 2020, through the Deputy Commissioners across the country, including Punjab, and also the copies of this notice or letter shall be sent to the Prime Minister and Punjab Chief Minister.

The purpose of this Band is to awaken the Central and State Governments from their deep slumber regarding the hard-hitting demands of the farmers and their plight in the whole of the country.

They said that their main demands include guaranteeing the minimum support price (MSP) of all crops as per Dr MS Sawaminathan report; waiving off all types of debt of all farmers completely; lowering costs of all types of agricultural input, besides prices of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, agriculture machinery etc must be controlled and lowered; providing Rs  10,000 per month to all 60 years plus farmers as ‘Kissan Pension’; implementing “pro-farmer” Crop Insurance Scheme (CIS); among others.

The farmers demanded that the agriculture commodities and its allied vocations, like dairy, poultry etc, be kept out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and all other multilateral agreements including World Trade Organization (WTO), besides fixing the MSP of milk.

For all the suicide victim families, the farmers are demanding Rs  10 lakhs along with employment to one member of the family and complete waiving off their entire loan.

The demand charter also includes the farmers’ concern regarding the current decision of Punjab Government about village common or panchayati land.

“This sort of common land should not be taken away by the government as it will badly affect the landless agriculture workers or small and marginal farmers’ families who get employment on these lands,” they said while condemning the decision and decided to fight it back with full might.

“This 'Grameen Bharat Band' is also against the unethical or irrational and unholy alliance between Punjab Governments, (both previous and the current) and the private thermal plant capitalist owners as the electricity has become too costly by which the burden is being shifted on to masses of Punjab by increasing the electricity rate by 30 paise per unit,” they said.They added that the Band was also for getting Rs  200 per quintal compensation for

the management of paddy straw.

They also demanded to compensate the farmers for the damage done to wheat crop due to non-burning of paddy straw and also demanded to withdraw of cases filed against farmers on the issue of straw burning.