Farmers’ Protest Live Updates: Rahul Gandhi will lead a demonstration today around 11am from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan with Congress MPs, following which he, along with senior leaders, will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and submit a memorandum containing 2 crore signatures for his intervention.
Meanwhile, farmers’ unions on Wednesday reiterated that talks could only begin when the Centre repeals the new farm reform laws and have reportedly demanded a revised cost of production that will increase the minimum support price (MSP).
Here are live updates:
– Rahul Gandhi will lead demonstration today at 10:45am from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan with Congress MPs. After that he and other senior leaders will meet the President of India & submit a memorandum containing 2 crore signatures for his intervention, said Congress MP K Suresh.
– The farmers unions have written to the Ministry of Agriculture saying that they were ready for talks only “if the Centre came out with with a concrete proposal without repeating proposed changes to the farm laws offered earlier,” The Times of India reported.
– Meanwhile, Rashtriya Lok Dal national vice-president Jayant Chaudhary on Wednesday asked farmers to unite against the farm laws and said his party will back them. Paying tributes to his grandfather and former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh on his birth anniversary, the RLD leader said if farmers failed to raise their voice against the laws, then they may lose their land and identity.
– DMK chief M K Stalin on Wednesday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the continuing agitation by farmers in Delhi, accusing him of not taking steps to end their nearly a month long protest. Also charging Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami with betraying farmers by backing the Centre’s new farm laws, he alleged the laws would wreck the livelihoods of farmers.
– Besides, langars (community kitchens) and night shelters have also been set up at the protest venues. Medicines and ambulance facility are also being provided to the agitating farmers, he added.
– The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Wednesday provided 700 water geysers to the farmers protesting against the Centre’s farm laws at the national capital’s borders in the biting cold. Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and some other states have been camping at several entry points of Delhi for nearly a month, demanding the Centre repeal the three farm laws.
– Modi will also interact with farmers from six states during the event, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. “The farmers will share their experiences with PM-KISAN and also on various other initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of farmers,” it said.
– Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the next instalment of the financial benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) on Friday via video-conferencing, his office said on Wednesday. With the push of a button, Modi will enable the transfer of more than Rs 18,000 crore to over nine crore beneficiary farmer families, it added.
– Farmers unions on Wednesday reiterated that talks could only begin when the Centre repeals the new farm reform laws and have reportedly demanded for a revised cost of production that will increase the minimum support price (MSP).