FARMERS DECLINE REQUEST TO REDUCE NUMBERS FOR PARL PROTEST
NEW DELHI: Farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws have declined a request by the Delhi police to reduce the number of people who would gather in front of Parliament to push for the laws to be withdrawn from July 22, a union leader said.
“We informed police that every day 200 farmers will go to Parliament from the Singhu border during the Monsoon session. It will be a peaceful protest and protesters will have identification badges also,” Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh national president Shiv Kumar Kakka said. The monsoon session of Parliament will start on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on August 13.
NEW DELHI: The police on Sunday wrote a letter to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to keep extra vigil at seven of its station in view of the protest call given by farmers near Parliament, news agency ANI reported.
The police also urged DMRC to close Janpath, Lok Kalyan Marg, Patel Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Mandi House and Udyog Bhawan stations on Monday if needed, according to ANI.
The letter was sent after the Delhi Police held a meeting with a delegation of farmers near Singhu border, ahead of their planned protest starting from July 22.
Farmer unions are planning to intensify their nearly eightmonth-long stir by protesting till the scheduled end of Parliament’s monsoon session to demand scrapping of three farm laws passed in September last year and a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP).
“We told Delhi Police that 200 people will march to Parliament from Singhu border every day. Each person will have identification badge. We’ll hand over a list of protesters to the government,” farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka was quoted as sayijg by news agency ANI.
The police asked us to reduce number of protesters, which we declined, he added.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait had said last week that the protest near Parliament will be ‘peaceful’. “It will be a peaceful protest. We will sit outside the Parliament while proceedings will continue in the House,” Tikait said on Wednesday.
The statement came in the wake of apprehensions of violence, like the one witnessed on the Republic Day when the farmers reached Red Fort as a part of their ‘tractor rally’ protest.