After meeting Punjab CM, farmers protesting in Chandigarh call off stir
Activists of farmers' unions who were staging a sit-in at the Sector 34 ground in Chandigarh called off their protest on Friday, the decision coming a day after their meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) called off the strike following an assurance by the Punjab government to fulfil their demands by September 30. The protesting farmers will leave the venue at 2 pm on Friday.
Mann also assured them that their suggestions would be incorporated before the policy's implementation.
Mann on Thursday held an over two-hour meeting with leaders of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, which led the protesting farmers, to discuss their demands.
Farmers began a five-day protest on Sunday to press for their demands, including the agriculture policy's implementation.
Speaking to reporters at the protest site, Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said they had urged the state government to make the agriculture policy public.
"They (the government) said it was being finalised… They said by September 30, they would finalise it," he said.
"We will wait till September 30. After we get a copy of the policy, we will go through it and hold a meeting and decide the next course of action," he added.
In the interim, "we have decided to end the protest in Chandigarh at 2 pm", Ugrahan said.
On Thursday, when asked about the farmers' future course of action following the meeting with Mann, the farmer leader had said they would take a call after a meeting.
Mann assured the farmers that the state government was committed to safeguarding their interests and that the new agriculture policy would be a step forward in this direction.
The draft of the policy is ready but it will be finalised only after due deliberations with the farmers, the chief minister had said.
The draft will be shared with the farmers by September 30 and their suggestions sought, he had added. With PTI inputs
