‘Delhi Chalo’ call: 3 Union ministers to hold another meeting with farmers on Monday

Three central ministers will again hold a meeting with farm bodies from Punjab and Haryana, who are planning to start a protest march, ‘Delhi Chalo’, from February 13 under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, on Monday.

This is going to be the second meeting within five days, as the last meeting took place in Chandigarh on Thursday last week, and tomorrow’s meeting is also scheduled in the city.

The ministers who are reaching here for the meeting are food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal, agriculture minister Arjun Munda and minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai. In the previous meeting, Punjab chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann was the mediator.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal-led Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) (Sidhupur), Baldev Singh Zira-led BKU (Krantikari), Jaswinder Singh-led BKU (Ekta-Azad) are among the main unions from Punjab which are part of the SKM (non-political). After getting information that the Haryana authorities have started sealing state borders, a few farmer groups have left on tractor-trailers from Moga and Bathinda districts in south Malwa towards the Shambhu border.

The farmer unions had planned to enter Haryana from four different locations- Shambhu border (Patiala), Moonak (Sangrur), Dabwali road (Muktsar) and Ratia road (Mansa). However, as per information Haryana police have sealed all four entry points at these locations to stop the movement of the farmers.

The farmers’ organisations are sticking to the plan of the protest march towards the national capital.

“As of now we stick to our plan for the march as our demands have not been met despite assurances by the central government,” said Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who heads a faction of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU).

He claims support of 17 farm bodies from Punjab and various other farm bodies from different states of the country.

He said though the Haryana government has been creating hurdles and making efforts to stop farmers from marching towards Delhi, their plan is unchanged, and farmers are ready for a long protest.

“These are not demands, the BJP government has run away from their commitments, which they have given in 2021 after which the protest was lifted. There are no new demands, the government have already agreed to these demands in 2021 but they have not fulfilled their promise,” he said.

He claimed that more than 2,000 tractors will march towards the Delhi border on Tuesday if talks with the government ended without positive results.

He said, “The barricades have failed to stop us in 2020, so we are not concerned about it. We are focusing on tomorrow’s meeting right now. We have not decided how we will reach Delhi if stopped at the borders. But a strategy will be chalked out if tomorrow’s meeting fails,”

Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher condemned the restrictions imposed by the Haryana government and the Chandigarh administration.