Even as the farmers’ organization have already made clear its intent that no talks regarding the Centre’s new farm bills would be held with the bureaucrats, the Central Government has once again invited the agitating farmer unions from Punjab for a meeting on October 14.
The Union Agriculture Ministry’s secretary Sanjay Agarwal, in a letter dated October 10, has invited the farmers for a ‘dialogue’ on October 14 at Krishi Bhawan. Earlier, the farm organizations had turned down Agarwal’s invite (for October 8) maintaining that it was “not to initiate a dialogue but merely to explain how the laws are beneficial”.
This time, the Central Government has invited the farmers for “dialogue” after taking into consideration their unabated agitation.
To take the final call, the state’s 30 farmers’ organizations will be holding a meeting on October 13.
The farm unions have maintained that any decision will be taken in consensus after considering who will be attending the meeting, and what will be the agenda.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda) state general secretary Jagmohan Singh said: “The Government has considered our agitation and called for a meeting. Earlier, the government was trying to convince us about the benefits of anti-farmer laws, but our protest has forced the Government to call for a meeting.”
On the other hand, three-member ministerial panel constituted by the Punjab Government has also requested the farmers to hold talks. Notably, a consortium of farmers, All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), had set October 15 deadline for the Punjab Government to convene a special Vidhan Sabha session to repeal the Centre’s new agriculture laws.
Accusing the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh of dilly-dallying in convening the Vidhan Sabha’s special session, the farmers had declared that they would hold protests outside the houses of the state Congress leaders unless the Government calls a special Assembly session to repeal the contentious laws while setting October 15 as deadline.
Following this, the State Government had constituted a three-member committee comprising Cabinet Ministers — Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria — to have a dialogue with the representatives of various farmer unions or associations which are on the state-wide protest against the Centre’s farm laws.
Jagmohan said that during our October 13 meeting, we would take decisions about both the invitations and about our future course of action.
As per the invitation, representatives of as many as 20 farmers’ organizations have been invited by the Centre, while there are total 30 outfits protesting together under the banner of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee.
BKU Rajewal has been sidelined after it moved the Apex Court without consulting the other outfits.
With each passing day, the farmers’ agitation has been gaining momentum and their protests have been continuing at various places at railway tracks, in front of petrol pumps of big corporate houses and at roads.
Punjab Government, especially the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, has all along been appealing to the agitating farmers to relax their rail roko protest to goods trains as the state may face shortage of coal, urea/DAP etc if it continues for long.
Notably, the protests have led to severe power outages in the State due to reduced power generation as the movement of goods trains has been stopped since September 24 by the agitating farmers.
Reportedly, while agriculture tube wells are getting power supply only for two hours, the domestic consumers are facing power outages during peak hours.
It has been learnt that there has been an acute shortage of coal with only about a week’s stock left, and around 10 lakh metric tonnes of food grains could not be dispatched from the State.
PRIME MINISTER, CORPORATES TO REPLACE TRADITIONAL RAVANA THIS DUSSEHRA
The agitating farmers have decided to burn the effigies of the Prime Minister and ‘Corporates’ this Dussehra instead of the traditional effigies of Ravana, Meghnath, and Kumbhkaran.
The State’s Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee has announced that it will burn the effigies of the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and the big corporate, ‘Corporate Ravana’, at Amritsar on October 23.
On the day of Dussehra (October 25), the outfit will burn the effigies of the PM at the village level.