Will hold tractor parade in Delhi on Jan 26, say protesting farmers

Protesting farmers said on Saturday said they will hold marches towards governors’ houses in different states on January 23 and take out a parade on tractors on January 26 against the Centre’s three farm laws. “On January 23, we will hold marches towards Governors’ Houses in different states and a ‘Tractor Kisan Parade’ will be held on January 26 in Delhi. The tractor parade with the national flag will be called ‘Kisaan Parade’,” Krantikari Kisan union president Darshan Pal said, according to news agency ANI.

“We were peaceful, are peaceful and will be peaceful, but will stay at Delhi borders until new farm laws are repealed,” said one of the leaders of the protesting farmers’ unions, according to PTI.

Farmer groups continued to block traffic from Ghaziabad and Noida to Delhi on Saturday. The Singhu and Tikri border crossing points from Delhi to Haryana have also remained completely blocked since last month when the farmer agitation against three laws enacted to liberalize the sector started. At the Ghazipur border, the service lane of National Highway-24 continued to remain closed for traffic.

Meanwhile, Union minister of state (MoS) for agriculture Kailash Choudhary said a solution would come up during the talks to be held on January 4 with the farmers and that the ongoing deadlock would end. “I am confident that in the next round of talks with farmers, a solution will be reached and the ongoing protest will come to an end. The three farm bills are in favour of farmers. They used to demand to get rid of the middleman and sell their produce at a rate of their choice,” the minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The first five rounds of talks between protesting farmers and the government failed to resolve the deadlock. On December 30, the farmers’ unions decided to meet the ministers for the sixth time. The government only agreed to address two of the four issues raised by farmers, which were sparing heavy fines for stubble burning and continuing the current mechanism of giving subsidised power for agricultural use. The farmers have said they will intensify their stir if their demands are nor met.