BKU leader Rakesh Tikait gave a stern warning to the Center to repeal the contentious farm laws by November 26
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait today gave a stern warning to the Centre to repeal the contentious farm laws by November 26 or else the farmer protests would be intensified.
Tikait tweeted in Hindi that "The central government has time till November 26, or else from November 27, farmers will reach the border at the movement sites around Delhi on tractors from villages and strengthen the tents at the movement site with solid fortifications.
November 26, notably, will mark one year of the ongoing farmers' protests at Delhi's border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.
Hundreds of farmers are encamped at these borders with a demand that the three laws namely Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, be taken back and a new law made to guarantee a fix MSP for crops.
Protesting farmers claim that they would be left at the mercy of corporations because of these laws. The Centre, however, has maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer and as many as 11 rounds of formal dialogues between the two sides haven't been able to break the impasse.
Earlier on Sunday, Tikait had said that the agitating farmers will turn the government offices into 'grain markets' if they are forcibly evicted from the protest sites. The warning came two days after the Delhi Police removed all the barricades from Tikri and Ghazipur borders for the easy movement of traffic, a move which farmers called is to displace them.
The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.