SKM's crucial Saturday meet to decide agitation's future course
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Dec, 2021 11:51 AM
New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) Days after the Parliament repealed the three contentious farm laws, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) will be holding a crucial meeting on Saturday to discuss whether to end the over-an-year- old agitation, among other issues.
Reiterating their demands from before the government announced to repeal the laws, the SKM - a consortium of 40-odd farmers' agitation - has been demanding legal backing for, among others, Minimum Support Price (MSP), withdrawal of cases against the farmers' families since last year, and compensation to the farmers' families that died in the last one year during agitation.
The meeting will be held at the Singhu Border camp site, which acted as the headquarters for the SKM.
Soon after the Prime Minister's announcement on November 19 about repeal of farm laws, the SKM had written a formal letter to him putting forth their demands in no uncertain means.
"With no formal assurance from Government of India as yet, the farmers struggle for their still-pending demands continues. SKM has not received any reply from the government in response to the letter to the Prime Minister, where SKM had raised six key demands as a pre-condition for withdrawal of the farm movement," a statement from the SKM said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the permanent morchas in dozens of places continue at Delhi borders and elsewhere, "reflecting the discipline and determination that protesting farmers have", the SKM release said.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Amarinder Singh said his government would be happy to work in conjunction with the Centre to ensure adherence to proper Covid-19 protocols, including testing and vaccination of pilgrims using the corridor.
A CBI spokesperson here said that the agency sleuths carried out searches at the premises of Eastern Coalfields Ltd General Manager Subhash Mukhopadhyay, retired General Manager Sushanta Banerjee, colliery agent H.C. Moitra, Manager, Security, Mukesh Kumar, and Inspector, Security, Rinku Behra.
Former Congress President and Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul Gandhi, was also present during the meeting. The meeting was held at Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10 Janpath here.
The Prime Minister conveyed his warm greetings to President Biden and Vice President Harris and his appreciation for the initiatives taken by President Biden including those related to the Quad, Covid-19 and climate change.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has ordered Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) to cancel or revisit all the "one-sided" pacts with private companies that are not contractually obligated to supply sufficient power to meet the state's peak demand during the paddy sowing and summer season.
