There was no plan to stop PM's visit or obstruct his programme: SKM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Jan, 2022 02:09 PM
New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS) More than 24 hours after the security breach in Prime Minister Narendra Modis convoy near Ferozepur in Punjab on account of farmers protest, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Thursday claimed that "there was no programme to stop the Prime Minister's visit or obstruct his programme" and that the "farmers had no prior information" about the PMs convoy.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday claimed in a statement that they had planned protests on receiving the news of Prime Minister's proposed visit to Punjab on January 5.
"A total of 10 farmers' organisations affiliated to SKM had announced a symbolic protest demanding the arrest of (Union Minister of State for Home) Ajay Mishra Teni and other outstanding demands.
"For this purpose, programmes of protests and effigy burning were announced at the village level across Punjab on January 2 and at the district and tehsil headquarters on January 5. There was no programme to stop the Prime Minister's visit or obstruct his programme," claimed the SKM statement.
Even after the three contentious farm laws were repealed by the Parliament after more than a year-long protest by the SKM, the farmers are still protesting, especially in Punjab, for their unmet demands, which include the removal of Ajay Mishra (in connection with last year's Lakhimpur Kheri violence), compensation to the families of those martyred during the farmers' agitation, and most importantly, Minimum Support Price for all agricultural produce, for which the government has promised a committee with farmers' representatives on board.
The farmers' consortium further said that as per the pre-determined schedule, peaceful protests were held at every district and tehsil headquarters in Punjab on January 5.
"When some farmers were stopped by the police administration from going to the district headquarters of Ferozepur, they protested by sitting on the road at many places. Of these places, one was the flyover of Pyarayana where the Prime Minister's convoy came, stopped and went back," the statement said.
"The farmers protesting there had no concrete information that the Prime Minister's convoy was going to pass through. They got this information from the media after the Prime Minister's return," the SKM claimed.
Stating that it is clear from the video of the occasion that the protesting farmers did not even make any effort to go towards the Prime Minister's convoy, the SKM said, "Only a group with BJP flag and raising slogans such as 'Narendra Modi Zindabad' had reached near the convoy. Therefore, the threat to the life of the Prime Minister seems completely concocted."
The farmers further alleged that "to cover up the failure of his rally, the Prime Minister tried to malign both the state of Punjab and the farmers' movement by using the pretext of 'somehow his life was saved'."
"The whole country knows that if there is a threat to life, then it is for the farmers, from criminals like Ajay Mishra becoming minister and roaming freely. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha expects the Prime Minister of the country to not make such irresponsible statements keeping in mind the dignity of his post," the SKM said.
According to sources, Amarinder Singh will convene a meeting of leaders close to him in a few days to consider the formation of his new party, which will include all the leaders of the anti-Sidhu faction.
The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Khalid, Shriram Chaurasia, Zishan Ahmad, Vikas Kesarwani and Krishna Kumar. Inspector (Kareli) Anupam Sharma said the arrested persons had sold SIM cards to law-breakers at high prices after creating fake IDs.
The ex-CM of Punjab recalled that Rawat himself had publicly stated after meeting him that he was satisfied by his government's track record on the 2017 poll promises.
It is learnt that Channi in his first meeting with the Prime Minister after becoming chief minister of Punjab requested that the Centre take back its decision to postpone paddy procurement by 10 days. The Centre has postponed the procurement of paddy by 10 days due to rain in Punjab and Haryana. Earlier the procurement was supposed to start from October 1 but now it will start from October 11.
Scotching speculation to the contrary, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday made it clear he was not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but had no intention of continuing in the Congress either, which he said was going downhill with senior leaders completely ignored and not given a voice.
The meeting lasted for over two hours and the issues raised by Sidhu will be put before the Cabinet on October 4, sources in the party said.After the meeting at Punjab Bhavan, where AICC observer Harish Chaudhary was also present, both Channi and Sidhu left the meeting venue without talking to the media.
