Lakhimpur Kheri: Farmers’ dharna ended on Saturday after talks with senior district officials over their demands, including the removal of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Tenni’ and the enactment of a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP). Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Rakesh Tikait gave this information.
Addressing the farmers, Tikait said that the future strategy of SKM will be prepared during a meeting in Delhi on 6th September. The dharna, demanding a proposed road march by SKM, removal of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, and law on MSP, ended on Saturday afternoon.
The farmers ended their dharna on Saturday after successful talks with district administration officials and assurances of holding a farmers’ meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. District administration officials including District Magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh reached the protest site at around 2.30 pm and received the memorandum of the farmers, after which they called off the strike.
The district administration did not allow marches on the city streets in view of the law and order situation in the district. The SKM started its dharna on Thursday morning at Rajapur Mandi Committee in Lakhimpur city. The SKM had staged a sit-in on various demands, including the sacking of Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, the release of innocent farmers in jails, the MSP guarantee law, the withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, payment of sugarcane arrears and land rights of the government. .
Lakhimpur Kheri is the native district of the Union Minister of State for Home and he is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Kheri for the second time in a row. It is worth mentioning that on October 3 last year, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in violence in Tikoniya village when farmers protested the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Ajay Mishra’s village in Lakhimpur Kheri district. The minister’s son Ashish Mishra has been arrested as the main accused in this case.
The farmers are demanding that Ajay Mishra should be sacked from the post of minister in this matter. Prominent farmer leaders from different parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh, Darshan Singh Pal, member of SKM core committee, Yogendra Yadav, national convener of Swaraj India, etc. took part in the movement. Social activist Medha Patekar addressed the dharna on the very first day itself. Earlier in the day, a delegation of SKM leaders including Rakesh Tikait, Joginder Singh Ugra, Dilbagh Singh Sandhu, Ranjit Singh Raju, Ravinder Singh Patiala, Gur Amanpreet Singh Mangat visited the Mandi Committee along with top officials including Deputy Inspector General of Police Akhilesh Chaurasia, District Magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh. Had a meeting in the office.
Meanwhile, SKM core committee members Tajinder Singh Virk and Dr. Ashish Mittal, among others, informed the farmers involved in the agitation that the dharna has been called off. He said that the SKM submitted two memoranda to the district administration regarding the demands, one addressed to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the other to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The SKM leaders said that in a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister, the SKM has demanded full implementation of the agreement signed on October 4, 2021, between Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) leader Rakesh Tikait and officials of the Uttar Pradesh government. Tikait had on Friday called upon the farmers of the country to be ready for a massive nationwide agitation to resolve their issues. Addressing the dharna, he had said, “When, where, and how the nationwide agitation will take place, the SKM leaders will give information about it at an appropriate time.”
