Farmer Protest

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking directions to the Centre and other authorities to immediately clear blockades on national and state highways in Punjab where farmers are staging protests. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Manmohan said the matter is already pending before the court and it cannot entertain repetitive petitions on the same issue. "We are already examining the larger issue. You are not the only conscience keeper of society. Don't file repetitive petitions. Some are filing for publicity interest and some are filing to play to the gallery. We cannot entertain repetitive petitions on the same issue," the bench told petitioner Gaurav Luthra, who claimed to be a social activist in Punjab. The court also refused Luthra's request to tag the petition with the pending matter. Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since

Tensions escalated at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border, where police used tear gas to block farmers attempting to march to Delhi

The Congress on Friday reiterated its support for farmers' demands and said their protests have received a "huge booster dose" from no less a person than Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. The opposition party's assertion came ahead of a scheduled march by a group of farmers to Delhi from their protest site at the Shambhu border on the Punjab and Haryana border. Also, the remarks comes days after Dhankhar, speaking at a ceremony to mark the centenary of ICAR-CIRCOT in Mumbai, said, "Agriculture minister, I request you to please tell me, what was promised to the farmer? Why was the promise not fulfilled? What should we do to fulfil the promise? There was a movement last year, there is a movement this year, too." Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh noted farmers are marching to Parliament Friday. "Their protests received a huge booster dose from no less a person than the Vice President and Hon'ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha himself," Ramesh said in his po

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Farmers protest today: Over 100 farmers are set to march towards Parliament at 1 pm on Friday; central paramilitary forces deployed on the Haryana side of the border

The march has entered its 297th day and the indefinite hunger strike at the Khanauri border has entered its 11th day

Farmers have demanded MSP guarantees, Swaminathan reforms, pensions, debt waivers, the 2013 Land Act, and compensation for 2020-21 agitation deaths

One of the demands of the protesting farmers is a 10 per cent allocation of plots and a 64.7 per cent hike in compensation under the land acquisition law, equivalent to four times the market rate

Tikait said the government should tell the farmers, what should they do about stubble

Farmers, millers, and arhtiyas in Punjab will hold a statewide 'chakka jam' on Sunday between 12PM to 3 pm, protesting delays in paddy procurement and lifting, causing traffic disruptions

Rahul Gandhi met wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, hinting they might contest on Congress tickets as the party seeks to boost its chances against the BJP

The formation of this committee comes just two days after farmers marked 200 days of their 'Delhi Chalo' agitation by holding a 'kisan mahapanchayat' at the Shambhu border

Notably, farmers are protesting at the Shambhu border near Ambala and have been camping there since February 13

Slamming BJP MP Kangana Ranaut over her remarks on farmers' protests, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said the words were "deliberate" and will be used as a "shield" so that the top leadership of the saffron party is not blamed for its imminent defeat in the Haryana Assembly polls. "This is the BJP's script, which is being read out by an actress as dialogue on the instructions of a top director. When an ordinary politician understands that using abusive language about the farmers' movement in a farmers' state will harm their prospects, the BJP's Chanakya does not understand this?" Yadav said in a post in Hindi on X. "The real truth of this episode is that such a thing must have been said deliberately so that the statement of the actress can be cited as the reason for the defeat that has already been decided in Haryana and the top leadership is not blamed for it. This is not a statement but a 'word-shield' to protect someone," he added. Ranaut, the member of ...

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would soon form a multi-member panel to amicably resolve the grievances of farmers "for all times" and asked both the Punjab and Haryana governments to persuade the agitators at the Shambhu border between the states to remove their tractors and trollies from the site. A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan, which posted the matter for further hearing on September 2, asked the Punjab and Haryana governments to convey to the agitating farmers that the court as well as the two states are concerned about their issues and a forum is being constituted for the redressal of their grievances. "We have suggested to the advocate general and the AAG of Punjab and Haryana respectively to submit the proposed issues, which will be the subject matter of reference for the committee to be constituted by this court," the bench noted in its order. It further said, "We have clarified that the reference to the committee will have a wider ...

Addressing a press conference here, Congress MPs Randeep Singh Surjewala and Digvijaya Singh alleged that Chouhan misled the House "by telling lies"

Samyukt Kisan Morcha wrote an open letter on Sunday to the Election Commission of India urging to ensure "free and transparent" counting. Counting for the seven phases of Lok Sabha elections will be conducted on June 4. In the open letter, the SKM, which had spearheaded the protests against the now-withdrawn farm laws, said they are apprehensive about tampering in the counting process. "On behalf of the farmers across India, we wish to bring to your kind attention our apprehension on any eventuality of tampering with the counting process - scheduled for June 4, 2024, to subvert the people's verdict to help the present regime to cling on power," the SKM said. "Unlike the past elections, the farmers of India had directly opposed the election campaign of the BJP against the gross betrayal in implementing the written agreement with SKM especially regarding MSP and loan waiver and to expose its corporate policies," they said. The SKM, a coalition of over forty Indian farmers' unions, s

The Congress on Thursday hit out at the BJP for not fulfilling the promises made to farmers' organisations and asserted that an INDIA bloc government will implement all its guarantees to the tillers, including the legal guarantee of MSP. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh noted that elections have been held in 428 constituencies and now polling on 115 seats, including those in Punjab and Haryana, are left. In a video statement on X, he said the farmers' movement has been going on in Haryana and Punjab since five years and though the government took back the "three black farm laws", it has "not fulfilled the promises" it made to farmer organisations "For the last five years, the Modi government has continuously ignored the farmers' movement of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Atrocities were committed against the farmers. Now they are talking about snatching the MSP from the farmers of Punjab and Haryana for burning stubble," Ramesh said and asserted that the Congress strongl

The group, along with the old-SKM, will also hold demonstrations on Sunday against the decision to declare private silos as wheat procurement centres in Punjab

Several unions of railway employees have announced that they might bring a halt to all train services from May 1 if their demand of reinstating the Old Pension Scheme is not met