The Left and Congress on Friday launched a joint campaign against Farm Bills organising road-blockades in at least a hundred places in the State.
Roads were blocked at Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Malda, Raiganj, Murshidabad, Nadia, Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Hooghly, Kolkata and elsewhere with the leaders vowing to continue the movement indefinitely.
Earlier, the Left and Congress asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to call a special Assembly session to pass a unanimous resolution against the farm Bills and other legislations including the amendment in essential commodity laws. The TMC had yet to respond to the proposal.
At the end of a jointly organised “central rally” from Shyambazar crossing in North Kolkata to Esplanade in central Kolkata CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose said “the BJP Government has been introducing anti-people laws one by one with no regard for the opposition views. They have decided to ruin the farmers as they have done in Gujarat where the farmers are brutally suppressed. Now a time has come when a prolonged movement will have to start throughout the country to assert the rights of the farmers.
The Trinamool Congress had failed to provide a direction to the farmers’ cause he said adding “the onus now fell on the Left, secular and democratic parties to launch a pan-Indian movement in the country to secure the poor man’s rights.”
State Opposition Leader and senior Congress man Abdul Mannan walked alongside the CPI(M), Forward Bloc, RSP, CPI, RCPI and other Left parties in a long procession to register their solidarity.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury said “the BJP Government’s anti-farmer laws would save it Rs 1 lakh crore which is why it is bringing the anti-farmer laws which will finally destroy the public distribution system and make life more impossible for the Indian farmers.”
The ruling TMC’s Kisan Khet Mazdoor Cell too organised processions in North and South 24 Parganas and elsewhere in the State.
Reacting to the Left-Congress’ proposal for a joint Assembly session State Minister Partho Chatterjee said “they are trying to steal the show without fighting on the streets. I ask them as to why they are not going all out against the farm bill and why they are trying play politics in Assembly.”