Will decide next course of action on Feb 29: Farmer leaders on ‘Dilli Chalo’ call

Chandigarh: Farmer leaders Friday said they will decide their next course of action on their ‘Dilli Chalo’ call on February 29, and announced a candle march on Saturday and burning of Centre’s effigies two days later.

A decision to this effect was taken Friday evening by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), which are spearheading the ongoing agitation at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Haryana and Punjab over various demands including a legal guarantee for MSP.

“The next announcement about the agitation will be made on February 29,” KMM leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told the media at the Khanauri border point.

He also announced they will hold a candle march on February 24 and will burn the effigies of the Centre on February 26.

Farmers leaders had Wednesday put the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march on hold for two days after a protester was killed and about 12 police personnel were injured in clashes at Khanauri.

The incident took place when some protesting farmers were trying to head towards barricades.

Thousands of farmers have stayed put at Khanauri and Shambhu with their tractor-trolleys and trucks agitating for their demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops and farm debt waiver.

The Punjab farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.