NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (NNN-PTI) – Farmers protesting against the three new farm laws, yesterday rejected the federal government’s proposals and threatened to intensify their stir, by blocking main highways connecting nearby cities to the national capital.
Addressing the media, the farmers’ unions’ representatives announced that their protests would continue till Dec 14.
“We will block the highway connecting Delhi and Jaipur, & Delhi and Agra, by Dec 12,” said the farmers’ unions’ representatives.
While Jaipur is the capital city of the western state of Rajasthan, Agra is a popular tourist destination in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
They also resolved to avoid using mobile phone sim-cards belonging to private telecom company, Reliance JIO, as a direct criticism of the federal government’s bid to “favour the corporates.”
The farmers argue, the new farm laws are detrimental to their interests and enacted to favour big corporates.
On the other hand, senior leaders of the Opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M), met President Ram Nath Kovind and urged him to immediately withdraw the farm laws.
Briefing the press after meeting the Indian president, INC’s lawmaker, Rahul Gandhi, said, these laws should be withdrawn because of the manner in which they were passed in Parliament without consulting the farming community.
“These three new farm laws are anti-farmers. Farmers have understood that these new laws are a bid by the federal government to handover the agriculture sector to the corporates close to those running the federal government,” said Gandhi.
The three farm laws passed by the country’s Parliament are the “Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020,” the “Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020” and the “Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.”
Yesterday was the 14th consecutive day of the farmers’ protest. As many as six rounds of talks between the agitated farmers and the federal ministers have remained inconclusive.– NNN-PTI
