Four day long protest by the farmers of Punjab, demanding a hike in sugarcane price has called off today after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has assured them of “good news” in the upcoming days. Yesterday, Mann calls for a meeting with the union leader, considering that the protest was heavily affecting the traffic and daily commuters are harrassed. The announcement regarding affirmative response farmer’s demand came after the negotiation that spanned about 90mins.
“A solution has been reached. We will make the announcement after holding meetings with other stakeholders. We specifically talked about disrupting rail and road traffic. All unions have agreed that people will not be made to suffer because of protests. The farmers will get good news in the coming days. I am not announcing it today. The government will announce it soon,” Mann stated, addressing the media.
The CM also added ,” For the first time in history of the state the govt has cleared all pending arrears of sugarcane farmers, which were inherited from the previous governments. The state has 16 sugar mills, out of which nine are in the cooperative sector , others are provate. Payments from two private mills in Phagwara and Dhuri are pending and wheels have been set in motion for recovering dues and paying them to farmers, after selling these properties”.
Farmers has begun agitation on Tuesday with an demand to hike the state assured price(SAP) for sugarcane from 380Rs to 450 Rs per quintal. The agitators, led by the Bharti Kishan Union( Doaba) had been staging a ‘dharna’ in the midst of Jalandhar-New Delhi National Highway, Jalandhar-Phagwara section. They were also demanding about the re-opening of sugar mill’s operation for crushing sugarcane.
They have put up tent in the middle of road and began spending night on the highway. The unions, on Thursday, also made blockade on a section of Delhi-Amritsar Railway track near Dhanowali village in Jalandhar which resulted to cancellation of several trains, termination and diversion to another route.
Farmer leader Balwinder Singh claimed that they were forced to take streets to protest by compulsion , not for choice since the state government neglected the issue of sugarcane price announcement. Protester said that tough the state govt has convinced to settle their issues on November 16, the meeting was postponed a day before. Therefore, they refused to withdraw until their demands are met.
Meanwhile, Mann responded the protesters by calling for open dialogue and urged the farmers not to create inconvenience of general public through blocking roads, railways. Instead, he re-iterated the farmers to restrict the agitation within Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh, The Secretariat office, the agriculture minister’s office. However, after farmers demand has been granted by Mann, farmers start lifting road blockade and traffic wil resume soon.
