Go and keep protesting…CM Bhagwant Mann left the farmers’ meeting in anger

New Delhi: Farmers (40 leaders of SKM political) who have been agitating for a long time for their demands, held a meeting with the Chief Minister of Punjab on Monday. But after the reason during the meeting, the CM left the meeting. In which the farmer leaders have expressed displeasure. After the CM left the meeting, the farmer leader told the media that our meeting was going very well. There was a debate on some demands. After our demands, the Chief Minister insulted us. The CM said that you people should not sit on the roads.

The CM asked us for information about the program to be held on the 5th. Will you protest or not. Farmer leader Joginder Singh told Aaj Tak that for the first time a CM was seen doing this. The CM left the meeting. The CM walked out of the meeting in anger.

The CM told us that I did not call the meeting due to fear of protest. After this he told us, ‘Go and protest’. We told the CM that it is our duty to protest, but the CM got up and left without listening to us. No consensus was reached in the meeting. We will protest. We are hurt by the attitude of the CM. If the government or the CM were farmer friendly, they would not have done what they did today.

The farmers said that the government has already assured to fulfill 13 out of 17 demands. These demands include formation of a sub-committee between the government and farmers to address the concerns of the farmers, starting a one-time settlement scheme for NABARD loans of farmers similar to government departments, waiving electricity bills of motors installed on the Sirhind feeder canal from January 1, 2023, and resolving issues related to government land leases by 2024-25.

Other demands include issuing rifle licences to farmers to prevent crop damage from stray animals, implementation of prepaid electricity meters, ban on forced supply of nano-packaging and other products to farmers, compensation for sugarcane crop losses due to floods, lifting of ban on opening new accounts in cooperative societies, formation of sub-committees and redressal of farmers’ demands under the National Soil Research Act.