Flouting Covid norms, farmers march to Delhi
The protesters, who set out from Amritsar’s Beas town, are expected to reach national capital today
AMRITSAR: Defying the Covid-19 protocol and lockdown in Punjab, hundreds of supporters of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, including women and the elderly, gathered at Beas town in Amritsar district on Wednesday before heading for Delhi’s Singhu border to intensify the agitation against the three farm laws.
They left in dozens of tractortrailers, cars and tempo-travellers from the bridge over the Beas river on the Amritsardelhi national highway without any check by the police.
More than 30 people were seen huddled together in some trailers. Before embarking on the journey, the supporters gathered to raise slogans against the Centre and a few corporate houses. The protesters are expected to reach the national capital on Thursday.
To protest against lockdown on May 8
Farmer unions from Punjab, which have been agitating against the central farm laws, on Wednesday said they will hold street protests against the coronavirus lockdown on May 8 in the state and urged people to defy the restrictions.
Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border protest site, farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal alleged the government has imposed a lockdown to hide its failure to handle the coronavirus situation and wants to weaken the ongoing farmers’ movement.
He was speaking on behalf of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions that is spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s three agri-marketing law. “The 32 farmer unions of Punjab have decided to protest against the lockdown on May 8 (in Punjab) where our field workers will come out on streets and ask people to open their shops and not follow the lockdown,” Singh said. Like several other states reeling from the Covid surge, Punjab has imposed extensive curbs, in addition to measures like a weekend lockdown and night curfew till May 15.
“The three black farm laws were also made during the lockdown last year. Lockdown is no solution. It only results in losses to the economy and unemployment. This government is just hiding its failures under the garb of lockdown — like how they have failed in providing oxygen, beds and other medical facilities to patients,” Rajewal claimed. The 78-year-old said he would push for “nationwide stir against lockdown” in the next meeting with the SKM leaders.