Farmers lift month-long dharna from 18 toll plazas across Punjab

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[google-translator]

The farmers owing allegiance to the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) on Sunday lifted month-long dharna from 18 toll plazas of Punjab and said struggle would continue in other forms for the pending demands.

The stir that commenced on December 15 was ensuring toll-free travel for commuters. The sit-in at toll plazas is part of the indefinite protest in front of the offices of deputy commissioners in Punjab which began on November 26. As per the announcement by KMSC, the protests ended on Sunday, after which toll companies started charging the tax from the commuters. The sit-ins were also lifted from the DC offices.

“We have ensured that the employees of the toll plazas will get full salaries for the period of the stir and there will be no hike in the toll tax after lifting of the protest staged against the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

On final day of the stir, the KMSC organised a gathering at Mini Secretariat here. Various leaders addressed the farmers and reiterated demands before the governments and raised the issues concerning the farmers and general public. “Only this phase of the struggle has ended, it will continue in other forms, a strategy for which has been chalked out by the leadership”, said Gurbachan Singh Chabba, state secretary of the KMSC.

“Though we are vacating the toll plazas today, we demand that the government should construct the roads on its own, declare the toll plazas as public sector organisations, reduce the toll price by 75 percent and stop charging the road tax on registration of the vehicles”, said Satnam Singh Pannu, president of the organization.

He said, “The way the state government ignored our demands proves that irrespective of their parties the politicians have no concern with the people’s interests and they favour the interests of the corporates”.

The farmer leaders said they will organise big gatherings in all the districts of Punjab on January 26 to express resentment over the policies of the governments.

The farmers laid siege to the toll plazas in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Moga, and Fazilka districts.

The demands of the protesters include checking drug smuggling; improving law and order; implementing the minimum support price (MSP) guarantee law for crops on the lines of the Kerala government; hiking wages of labourers under MGNREGA; making a concrete policy to save Punjab’s waters; providing guarantee for alternative crops to paddy; meeting pending demands of the Delhi morcha (protest); revoking decisions that deprive states of exercising their rights; acting against culprits of the Lakhimpur Kheri episode; and exemplary punishment to culprits of the Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan police firing in 2015.


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