Farmers' protest to continue through harvest season

Promise of people coming in batches to occupy the sites during this period

Farmers construct permanent shelter as the summer season approaches, during their ongoing agitation against Centres three agri-laws, at Tikri border in New Delhi on Saturday, March 13, 2021.: PTI

TT   |   New Delhi   |   18.03.21 :  The farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders plan to keep the movement alive during the upcoming harvest season with the help of supporters from other walks of life in an example of building solidarities across professions.

With the harvest season upon them, farmers from Punjab and Haryana are under pressure to return to their fields. But Darshan Pal of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said that various unions and groups had already committed to sending people in batches to occupy the protest sites during this period.

This is just one instance of the broader coalition sought to be built, against not just the three contentious farm laws but also the labour codes and bank privatisation.

It is with this end in view that progressive mass organisations, including trade unions and student associations, participated in a meeting organised by the SKM at the Singhu border on Wednesday to ensure the success of the Bharat Bandh called by farmers on March 26.

The farmers’ unions, particularly from Punjab, are up in arms also over a new order from the Food Corporation of India asking peasants to furnish land records for direct transfer of the minimum support price to their bank accounts for the rabi marketing season. The SKM has asked farmers not to provide the documents to the government in a show of non-cooperation.