Farmers end protest in Chandigarh on Punjab CM’s assurance on demands

Chandigarh, Sep 6 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Hundreds of farmers under the banner of the Bharti Kisan Union-Ekta-Ugrahan and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, who were staging a sit-in protest in Chandigarh for six days, called off their protest on Friday after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann assured to fulfil their demands by September 30. Mann assured them that the government is mulling introducing a scheme to wave off farm loans, besides safeguarding their interests with the new agriculture policy being framed. Bharti Kisan Union-Ugrahan President Joginder Singh Ugrahan told the media here that they had urged the government to draft the agriculture policy. “They (the government) said it was being finalised and by September 30 it would finalised,” he said, adding: “We will wait till September 30. After we get a copy of the policy, we will go through it and hold a big meeting and decide the next course of action.” “So for the time being we have decided to end the protest in Chandigarh,” he said. On Thursday evening, at a meeting with a delegation of the BKU-Ugrahan and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, the Chief Minister said the draft of the Punjab Agriculture Policy is ready but will be finalised only after due deliberations with food growers. He said the draft will be shared with the farmers by September 30 and their suggestions will be sought on the policy. Mann said suggestions from the farmers will be duly incorporated into the policy as the government does not want to impose anything on the food growers, rather it is committed to consulting them about making agriculture a profitable venture. Dwelling on another agenda, the Chief Minister said the government is also mulling introducing a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme to offer much-needed relief to debt-ridden farmers who have been struggling to repay loans to cooperative banks. He said every effort will be made to bail out the farmers of the state from the ongoing agrarian crisis. —