Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait announced on Saturday that farmers will stage dharnas in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand on February 21 to press their demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP.
‘A resolution was passed during the meeting asking the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to launch a tractor march to Delhi in the last week of February if the government does not accept farmers’ demands’, said Tikait after attending a panchayat in Sisauli, Uttar Pradesh.
The panchayat was held as farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, to press the government to accept their demands entered the fifth day on Saturday.
The farmers from Punjab started their march to Delhi on Tuesday but were stopped by security personnel at Shambhu and Khanauri points on Punjab’s border with Haryana. The protesters have stayed put at the two border points since then.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday demanded that the Centre should bring an ordinance on giving a legal guarantee to MSP, a key demand of farmers who are currently camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri points of the Punjab-Haryana border.
The demand comes a day before the fourth round of talks between farm leaders and Union ministers over their various demands.
Stating that the Centre has a right to make “political” decisions, Pandher said, “If it government brings an ordinance it can bring it overnight, if it wants so. If the government wants resolution of farmers’ protest, then it should bring out an ordinance with an immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP”.
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