Announcing the end of his more than a year agitation, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) decided to suspend his protest at the New Delhi borders on Thursday. Farmers will begin to vacate the protest sites starting Saturday.
The leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Joginder Ugrahan, confirmed that the protest will be canceled, after a formal letter with government proposal, including the unconditional withdrawal of all police cases brought against protesters during the unrest.
Look | Shaking farmers celebrating on the Tikri border https://t.co/pPp4tFvkK3 pic.twitter.com/lAiIEk0kSI
– The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) December 9, 2021
SKM said that a ‘Vijay Diwas’ (Victory Day) will be held on December 11 at all borders, toll plazas and protest sites across the country, after which the protesters will return.
“We wanted to celebrate it tomorrow but we have postponed it to December 11 in view of yesterday’s tragedy where 13 people died in a helicopter crash”Said Yogendra Yadav, activist and president of Swaraj India.
The government had sent a draft proposal to the agricultural unions on Wednesday, saying that in light of the proposed concessions, there was no justification for the agitation to continue and calling on the unions to cancel it. On Thursday, SKM leaders met after receiving the government’s proposal.
SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said: “The andolan has been suspended. The unions will meet on January 15 to review if the government implements the agreed proposals.
Before the meeting, Ashok Dhawale, part of SKM’s five-member committee, said that they had received a formal communication from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Welfare. “The signed letter will now be placed before the agricultural unions at the SKM meeting and a decision on the lifting of morchas will be announced after the meeting,” he had said.
The protesting farmers in Singhu had started packing their carts in the morning as the outcome of the meeting was awaited.
The protests began on November 25 last year, when thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, marched towards the national capital, demanding the complete repeal of three contentious pieces of legislation: the Law on Trade in Agricultural Products and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation ) of 2020.; Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020; and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
On November 19 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the three laws would be scrapped. Later, they were repealed in Parliament.
.