SAD appeals to Centre to fulfil demand of farmers, asks AAP to stop “double crossing” cultivators

New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday rendered support to farmers who have embarked on the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest and appealed to the central government to fulfil the demands of the cultivators.

In post on X, the SAD chief also appealed to Aam Adami Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to give MSP on 17 crops including wheat and paddy as promised by them to farmers earlier.

“I appeal to Govt of India to immediately fulfil all the commitments already made to farmers. We also demand that @ArvindKejriwal and @BhagwantMann must honour their solemn commitment to give MSP on 17 crops including wheat and paddy as promised by them to farmers earlier,” he said.

Shiromani Akali Dal is the sole and long standing champion of farmers’ rights and has always stood by them. The party fully supports their right to peaceful democratic protest. The SAD govts have implemented unprecedented facilities for the farm sector including free power and…

— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) February 13, 2024

He further said that Kejriwal and Mann ‘must stop double crossing farmers as they had done during the last agitation’.
“We urge the Centre and Punjab government to find a peaceful resolution of farmers’ just demands through negotiations and not through repression,” he added.

He further said that his party has always been in support of the farmers.
“Shiromani Akali Dal is the sole and long standing champion of farmers’ rights and has always stood by them. The party fully supports their right to peaceful democratic protest. The SAD government have implemented unprecedented facilities for the farm sector including free power and many other measures,” said Badal.

Earlier in the day, the farmers’ protest turned violent when police fired tear gas shells at farmers at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab while they marched towards Delhi.

Among other things, the farmers are seeking an MSP guarantee for 23 crops, waiver of their debts and withdrawal of cases registered against them during the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation.

The farmers have also urged to scrap the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 and are demanding to reintroduce the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, ensuring consent from farmers and compensation at four times the collector rate.

Further, they are demanding to punish those involved in the Lakhimpur Kheri killings. An appeal to provide 200 days of employment per year and a daily wage of Rs 700 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) linking it with farming, has also been made by the farmers.

Also, a demand to provide compensation to the families of farmers who died during the protests in 2021 and a job for any family member has been put in place.The Centre, which burned its hands with that agitation, which lasted a year on Delhi’s borders and ended only after the scrapping of the three farm laws, held two rounds of meetings with farmer leaders in a bid to stall the march, but without success.

Police, late on Tuesday night again used tear gas to disperse protesting farmers at the Haryana-Punjab Shambhu Border.
Earlier in the morning, scenes of chaos filled the Shambhu border as the police tried to stop the protestors from entering the national capital.
Visuals from the border showed farmers running towards nearby farmland on the sides of the road as police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protestors.

Concrete slabs, iron nails, barricades, barbed wires, police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed by the police at several parts of the border.