Farmers begin arriving in Muzaffarnagar

MEERUT: The stage is set for the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s (SKM’s) kisan mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Over 300 organisations, including 60 farmers’ outfits, will participate in the mahapanchayat called by SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions spearheading the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

“The Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat will be the biggest ever in the last nine months,” the SKM said in a statement.

It also said the mahapanchayat will prove that the agitation has the support of “all castes, religions, states, classes, small traders and all sections of the society”.

The farmers’ protest against the three contentious laws has completed over nine months since they first arrived at the Delhi borders on November 26 last year. The farmers have been demanding the repeal of the laws which they are afraid will do away with the MSP (minimum support price) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

Top SKM leaders Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, Balbeer Singh Rajowal, Yogendra Yadav will share the stage at the mahapanchayat where Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait and his elder brother BKU chief Naresh Tikait will be present. Muzaffarnagar is the home district of the Tikait brothers.

Naresh Tikait alone has addressed over 100 panchayats in villages of western UP in the past one month to mobilise support for the mahapanchayat.

SKM claimed that thousands of farmers from 15 states, including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, had started reaching Muzaffarnagar district to participate in the mahapanchayat.

Khaps (clan-based bodies) in western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have already extended their support to the mahapanchayat. Naresh Tikait heads the Baliyan Khap.

The khaps and villagers have taken responsibility for arranging food and water for the mahapanchayat participants.

The SKM statement added that 500 langar services were started to arrange meals for farmers, including mobile langar system run on hundreds of tractor-trolleys It also said 100 medical camps have also been set up for the farmers attending the mahapanchayat.

Senior police officials, including additional director general of police (Meerut zone) Rajeev Sabharwal, reviewed security arrangements in and around Muzaffarnagar for the mahapanchayat.

While Sabharwal expected a crowd of 50,000 at the mahapanchayat, farmer leaders claimed lakhs of people would participate in the event.

Senior officials in Shamli, Meerut, Baghpat and Saharanpur districts of western Uttar Pradesh will keep a close watch on people during their arrival and departure.

ADG Sabharwal said elaborate security arrangements were made to maintain law and order during and after the event.