Ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in Rajasthan, a committee comprising three state ministers on Monday held talks with a delegation from Gujjar community to address their demands related to reservation and other issues.
'If our demands aren't met, then, we will hold tractor march on January 6 and also on January 26'
Farmers' protest against the three farm laws passed by the Centre has entered its 23rd day on Friday. "We are preparing ourselves for a longer stay as our fight against black laws will continue. It's getting colder, so we're putting more tents," said a protester.
Tractors from Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan have also reached on Tikri border between Delhi-Haryana as the farmers sit in for protest for nearly two months. The move comes as Delhi Police formally granted permission for the rally on January 26, assigning them routes for the same.
It was business as usual for agitating farmers at Singhu border on Wednesday as some were busy with langars while others listened to speeches of their leaders even as talks of the tractor rally that witnessed vandalism and violence a day before filled the air.
The march had started from Dindori town, located around 195 km away from Mumbai, on March 12 demanding relief of Rs 600 per quintal to onion growers hit by price crash, 12-hour uninterrupted power supply to farmers, and waiver of farm loans.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's speech in Dholpur reflects that his leader is Vasundhara Raje and not Sonia Gandhi, Sachin Pilot said in a no holds barred attack against his party colleague on Tuesday.
As many as 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal and Gurnam Singh Chaduni, have been named in a first information report in connection with the violence during the tractor parade that left 300 police personnel injured even as two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the agitation against the farm laws.
"We had asked them (PMO) to discontinue the visit due to bad weather conditions and protests. We had no information of his (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) sudden route change. There was no security lapse during the PM visit," Channi said at a press conference.
Prayers were offered and sweets distributed though people mostly took the virtual route to extend wishes. People also visited temples, observing social distancing norms.
Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar, who is a member of Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, said on Sunday that farmers have waterproof tents but they cannot protect them from biting cold and waterlogging.
Sources said while the Congress units of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will hold separate discussions on May 26 on their preparations and actions to be taken, the party will also hold strategy meets on Chhattisgarh on May 27.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said a large number of buses and other vehicles carrying BJP workers and other people were prevented from reaching the rally site.
Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal are realising that it is not a cakewalk to run a full state that is plagued with a fiscal deficit and where emotions run high at the drop of a hat, observes Sudhir Bisht.
Police said farmers have been allowed to hold peaceful protest at the Nirankari Ground in north Delhi.
Two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the ongoing agitation on Delhi's borders against the three farm laws, a day after violence broke out in the national capital during the tractor parade.
Power Minister A K Sharma blamed the 72-hour strike that began at 10 pm on Thursday on some 'irresponsible' leaders of the electricity department and said it was not in the interest of the employees.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the energy portfolio, held a meeting with trade union representatives and later said the government had no intention to privatise state-run power utilities.
Chaduni has made known his displeasure days after talks between his outfit SSP and Rajewal-led SSM for a pre-poll alliance for the state assembly polls.
A political slugfest broke out on Wednesday between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cavalcade, in a major security breach, got stranded on a flyover, 30 km away from Hussainiwala in Punjab, as a group of protesting farmers blocked his route.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Punjab visit was cut short on Wednesday after a "major security lapse" as he was stranded on a flyover for 20 minutes due to a blockade by protesters, prompting the Union Home Ministry to seek an immediate report from the state government and strict action against those responsible.
During the winter, Badrinath's 45 kg of gold and 35 kg of silver is kept at the Narsingh temple in Joshimath, located about half a kilometre from the houses which have developed cracks because of the subsidence.
Kavitha Kuruganti of AIKSCC said the government was not responding to the pinpointed question of farmer leaders.
One lakh copies of the three agri laws were burnt at the Singhu border alone, said Paramjeet Singh of Samyukta Kisan Morcha.
The ministers are believed to have discussed the issues raised by farmers, and how the Union government can constructively respond to dispel concerns expressed by them over the farm laws.
Centre's move to form a 29-member panel on making the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism effective and keeping three positions vacant in it for SKM representatives has triggered strong disapproval from it.
The administration started preparing for the demolition of two precariously standing hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, but faced protests from their owners and locals on the issue of compensation, while more families were evacuated from the danger zone as the number of affected houses rose to over 700.
Addressing a press conference at Singhu Border in New Delhi, farmer leader Balbeer Singh Rajewal said that farmers never demanded the Supreme Court form a committee to resolve the impasse, alleging the central government was behind this development.
There had been few signs of social distancing as thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana began their protest last week against the three new agro-marketing laws, setting off on a march to the national capital.
A major Gurjar organisation on Thursday called off its agitation over reservation after reaching a consensus with the Rajasthan government, a community leader said.
They also said they will observe the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23 as 'Azad Hind Kisan Diwas'.
In separate letters in Hindi to Modi and Tomar, the AIKSCC said that the government is wrong in assuming that the farmers' agitation against the three farm laws is being engineered by opposition parties.
The announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to repeal the three contentious farm laws is expected to bring to an end the year-long confrontation between the government and the farmers, which has left more than 700 dead in its wake.
Farmer unions protesting the Centre's three farm laws had said they would go ahead with their tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day.
The Union accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of "shirking political responsibility" of resolving the crisis.
The AIKS, a key member of the "Samyukta Kisan Morcha" that is spearheading the "Dilli Chalo" agitation against the three farm laws, asserted that no farmer organisation approached the court in the first place and asked for its intervention in the matter.
The government on Thursday asked farmer groups to consider its proposals for amending the Acts to address their concerns and said it was open to discussing its offer further whenever the unions want.
Organised by Left-wing farmers' and workers' outfits, the 'Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally', began from the Ramlila Maidan and culminated at the Parliament Street.
A delegation of farmers will meet Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday, said the spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union.
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