Villages in Punjab to honour farmers upon their return from protest sites

Many villages in Punjab are making preparations to welcome and honour farmers who will be returning to their homes after a year-long agitation against the Centre's three agriculture laws on Delhi's borders.

The programme for honouring farmers for their participation in one of the biggest and successful movement of the recent times has been chalked out after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday announced to suspend the agitation.

Chilla village in Mohali district has a population of around 2,000 and villagers actively participated in the agitation against the three contentious laws at the Singhu border in Delhi.

We will honour them (farmers) upon returning to the village, said local resident Jagtar Singh.

He said around 50 to 60 residents from the village were participating in the protest at the Singhu border. We will honour them with a trophy and a shawl.

He said four persons from his village spent a year at the protest site.

Singh said they will also honour women and children who stood everyday at a traffic light point carrying farmer flags to muster support for protesting peasants.

Similarly, villagers at many places in the state have planned to honour farmers when they come back home.

The SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, on Thursday decided to suspend the over a year-long farmers' movement against three agri laws and announced that farmers will go back home on December 11 from the protest sites on Delhi's borders.

The announcement came after the SKM, which is spearheading the movement, received a central government signed letter where it agreed to consider their pending demands, including withdrawal of cases against farmers and form a committee on minimum support price (MSP).

The Centre has already repealed the three farm laws.

Many Punjab farmers expressed their gratitude to people of Haryana for extending support to them during the stir.

Bhartiya Kisan Union general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal said people have made plans to honour farmers when they reach their respective villages.

Lakhowal said there were some farmers who spent over a year at the Singhu border.

Except for a few days, some of the farmers continuously remained at the protest site for more than a year, he said.

Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said farmers will start returning from December 11 from the protest sites on Delhi's borders.

They will be welcomed in their villages, he said.

On Wednesday, the SKM had said that it had reached a consensus on a revised draft proposal of the Centre on its pending demands.

Farmer leaders said that farmers will take out victory marches on December 11 to their respective places.

Farmers from Punjab and Haryana had taken essentials including mattresses, utensils, cots etc in their tractor trolleys to the protest sites.

Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, started protesting at Delhi border points on November 26 last year against the three farm laws, which have been repealed recently.