CHANDIGARH: Farmers today stopped the supply of vegetables, fruits, milk and other items to various cities of Punjab and Haryana as part of a nationwide strike against alleged anti-farmer policies of the Centre. "We are getting very good response from fellow farmers for their support to this agitation. At majority of places in the state, farmers have stopped bringing vegetables, milk and other items to the cities for sale," claimed Balbir Singh Rajewal , president, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU). "No farmer is being forced by anyone to stop bringing their produce. The farmers have so much anger against the central government that they became a part of this agitation on their own," said Rajewal.The decision to stop supplies starting from June 1 till June 10 was taken by farmers under the banner of Kisan Ekta Manch and Rashtriya Kisan Maha Sangh.A meeting of the coordination committee of these two farmers' organisations, which are umbrella bodies of 172 farmers' outfits, was held here last month to give final shape to the programme.Rajewal claimed that not only in Punjab and Haryana, farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and some other states were also not selling their produce in cities. "During the 10-day long protest, the farmers will stay in their villages and will not go to cities for supplying their produce," he said. "However, they can sell their produce among villagers," he said, adding that the first day of their agitation had been peaceful so far.Similar reports emerged from neighbouring Haryana where farmers at several places stopped supplies to cities. "Farmers in Haryana were also supporting us and have stopped supplying vegetables, milk and other items," said BKU Haryana president Gurnam Singh Chanduni.They were critical of the central government for allegedly not addressing their issues pertaining to low income, increasing number of farmers' suicides and rising debt, he said. "We have also been demanding minimum income guarantee scheme, implementation of Swaminathan Commission report and waiver of farmers' debt," said Rajewal. "We were forced to take this decision as the central government failed to help farming community which was in the crisis at this moment," Rajewal alleged.In Punjab and Haryana, farmers' outfits like BKU Rajewal, BKU Sidhupur, BKU Haryana have participated in this agitation.Meanwhile, vegetable sellers at several places of the two states feared that prices of vegetables could go up if fresh supplies did not come in the market.There were also reports from some places in Punjab suggesting that consumers started purchasing vegetables in bulk in the wake of farmers' protest.At some places in Punjab, some farmers even threw vegetables and milk on road in a symbolic protest.<doc-sep>New Delhi: Farmers’ unions across eight states launched a mega 10-day protest on Friday morning, shutting down supply of milk, vegetables and essential farm produce to mark the first anniversary of the Mandsaur demonstration in MP in which six farmers were killed in police firing. The strike is effective in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Chhattisgarh. Multiple orgainsers that News18 spoke to said farmers will not take to the roads this time. Instead, they will simply not supply milk and vegetables to the state's markets. City-dwellers can buy directly from the villages if they so choose. Among their major demands are one-time loan waiver, higher minimum support prices and higher prices for their produce in general. Over a 100 outfits claiming to be farmers’ organisations had met at Bhopal’s Gandhi Ashramin Wardha on May 11. The meeting was convened by Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh — an umbrella organisation of all the outfits. Modalities of the 10-day agitation were discussed during the meet. Swabhiman Shetkari Sangathana, which took part in the Maharashtra agitation for loan waiver, is staying away, questioning the credibility of these organisations. RSS-backed Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has also decided to not participate in the protests. In Mandsaur, the police were reported to have made farmers sign bonds of Rs 24,000 that they would not join the strike. “The administrative authorities have made us sign bonds so that we don’t get violent. Police officials are also being trained to fire tear gas shells. There is extra enforcement being brought in. Is preparation for some kind of war? We are just ordinary farmers demanding our needs,” said Anil Yadav, a local farmers’ leader in Madhya Pradesh. Yadav was arrested following the Mandsaur violence on June 6 last year and allegedly beaten up in custody. “I was arrested wrongly. The demands we had made last year are still unaddressed,” he said. In case of violence, the farmers have decided to go for ‘jail bharo’ wherein they will walk towards local police stations as a sign of unity and civility. “We will also walk the Gandhi path and observe a vow of silence if authorities pressurise us,” said a local farm leader. Farmers have been asked not to waste milk and vegetables, but some protesters defied the order in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Protesters waste milk in Ahmednagar city of Maharashtra. (Chaitanya Mangure/News18) Speaking to News18, Inderjit Jaijee, who is leading the protests in Punjab, said, “Farmers in Punjab have been distressed for a long time now. We have decided to stop supply of produce to the markets. This will create an automatic panic in the food market and the government has to listen to us. We have strictly asked all farmers to not waste their produce by throwing it on streets. This is being done just to portray our importance to the outside world which has neglected our existence,” he said. Farmer leaders in Maharashtra reiterated the plan of action. “It was through a national meeting that we reached the common conclusion. We are not going to take any violent measures but create tremendous pressure on the markets through stopping supply,” said a local farmer leader in Maharashtra. The All India Kisan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti met President Ram Nath Kovind this week to request him to ensure that a week of the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament be dedicated to farmer issues. One of the major reasons protests turned violent last year was miscommunication and mismanagement. This year, however, messaging apps, WhatsApp and social media platforms are being used to keep the protests peaceful. Pushpendra Singh, a farmer leader from Bhopal said, “I have circulated messages across roughly 200 WhatsApp groups and that in turn got spread further.” Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had spent a night in Mandsaur on Wednesday and met leaders of the Bharatiya Kisan Union who will be participating in the proposed farmers’ stir. The CM accused the Congress of sowing discord among farmers. Earlier, he had met bankers in Bhopal, instructing them to ensure timely payments to farmers after procurement of their crops by state government. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will also be in Mandsaur on June 6 to mark the first anniversary of the bloody protests.<doc-sep>Representatives of farmer unions at a meeting in Ludhiana on Monday. (Photo: Gurmeet Singh) Representatives of farmer unions at a meeting in Ludhiana on Monday. (Photo: Gurmeet Singh) AFTER FACING protests from dairy farmers, vegetable growers and vendors, farmer unions in Punjab on Monday announced that they would cut short their ‘Gaon Bandh’ protest and call it off on June 6. The strike was supposed to continue till June 10. The announcement was made by farmer union leaders along with Punjab Dairy farmers association (PDFA) officials. They said the “mode of protest” was causing differences among farmers and was even leading to instances of violence. They said it was also causing losses to farmers. Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of Bharti Kisan Union (Rajewal), said, “We don’t want any incidents of violence and moreover, it (the stir) is causing loss to dairy farmers and vegetable growers. We want everything to be done in a peaceful manner, our fight is with the Centre and not with farmers. So, we have decided to continue the protest only till June 6. On Wednesday, we will remember the farmers who were killed in Madhya Pradesh during protests last year and then end the strike. The decision has been taken in consultation with PDFA and other farmer unions.” Harmeet Singh Kadian and Harinder Singh, from Bharti Kisan Union (Kadian) and BKU (Lakhowal) respectively, said, “We have observed that unscrupulous elements entered the protest who had started harassing farmers by destroying their milk and vegetables. At a few places, they even took away the produce. We don’t want any losses to the farmers… rather we want them to get proper prices. We will identify the persons who have tried to defame us.” Daljeet Singh, president of PDFA, said, “Our commercial dairy farmers were facing huge losses as they cannot hoard milk for ten days. Also, we cannot allow anyone to waste our milk on the roads. The decision taken by the unions is a huge relief for us,” Vegetable growers stage agitation Vegetable growers gathered in Faridkot and blocked Moga-Kotkapura Road for nearly three hours on Monday. They also dumped vegetables as a mark of protest against farmer unions. Sarban Singh, president of Punjab Bavria Samaj, said, “Members of Bavria Samaj only do vegetable farming and they are small, marginal farmers. We are not with this bandh call, so who are these protesters? The actual dairy farmers, vegetable growers are not part of dharna…” Singh said. Nanak Singh, another vegetable grower, said, “We have given memorandum to the Faridkot DC against the ‘self-styled’ leaders of farmer unions. Some of the ‘protesters’ on roads are not even vegetable growers or dairy farmers.We want compensation for our losses and action against these goons.” In Gidderbaha, there was a clash between farmers and vegetable vendors. Similar clashes were also reported in Muktsar and Rampura Phull area of Bathinda.<doc-sep>Farmers in Punjab, who have been on strike for the last four days, have decided to call off their agitation on June 6, PTI reported on Monday. The decision was taken at a meeting of the leaders of several farmers’ organisations in Ludhiana. The state’s farmers had joined a 10-day strike called by farmers in several states of India. It began on June 1 and has so far been effective in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Chhattisgarh. The strike has led to a rise in the prices of vegetables in several cities. Prices have increased by Rs 10 to Rs 20 per kg. The farmers have been demanding debt waiver, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and a minimum income guarantee scheme. Monday’s meeting, presided over by Bhartiya Kisan Union President Balbir Singh Rajewal, was attended by by the BKU (Lakhowal), BKU (Sidhpur), Indian Farmers Association, BKU (Kadian) and the Punjab Dairy Farmers’ Association. After the meeting, Rajewal said farmers in Punjab would start supplying vegetables and milk to the cities on Wednesday. “But the stir would continue in other states till June 10,” he added. Earlier on Monday, some commercial dairy farmers had said they would withdraw from the protests because of their rising losses. Daljit Singh, president of the Punjab Dairy Farmers’ Association, said they had already incurred losses of Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 crore over the last three days.<doc-sep>
Farmers’ organizations in Punjab on Monday decided to call off their four-day-old strike from June 6 after clashes between farmers and milk vendors were reported across the state. The strike in Punjab and other states that started on June 1 was scheduled to end on June 10. The strike had caused a spike in vegetable prices in cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur as supplies were disrupted. “The government was trying to divide the farmers as it was shaken by the success of their protest programme. Some anti-social elements infiltrated our protest and kept harassing the common man. The decision to call off the protest prematurely was taken on the request of Progressive Dairy Farmers Association,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), at a news conference. Rajewal said that though the unions had asked the farmers to stop the supply of vegetables and milk, they never appealed to anyone to resort to violence. “We had held protests even in the past but had never seen such violence. Farmers and milk vendors have come to blows at different locations and we thought it was better to call off the strike,” said Rajewal. On Saturday evening, a group of protesting farmers and dairy owners had a heated exchange after which shots were fired in the air. As part of the protest, dairy farm owners were not allowed to sell their produce to government-run milk plants and other dairies for supply in cities. Some commercial dairy farmers had also said that with mounting losses, they would have no other option but to withdraw from the protest and sell milk to plants. Others said they were considering setting up chabeels (giving milk out for free) on roads or donating it to orphanages and old age homes. Rajewal said that the mounting pressure from the dairy farmers led to the decision to call off the strike. “The government has learnt its lessons through our protest. We only wanted that the middlemen who make all the moolah, should be checked and the farmers get their profit share. The middlemen buy veggies at cheap prices from the farmers and sell it at a price which is even five times more to the consumers. We wanted to reverse it so that the consumers get the vegetables at cheaper prices and farmers should get some profit,” said Rajewal. The protest will be formally called off on June 6 after paying tributes to the six farmers who had lost their lives during an agitation last year.