SKM advances meeting with Punjab’s protesting farmers to January 13

Chandigarh: Acceding to the request of Punjab farmers protesting at the Khanauri and Shambhu border points, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Sunday advanced from January 15 to 13 the proposed meeting for deciding on a joint fight.

The move came a day after the SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) wrote to the SKM to hold the meeting on January 12 or 13 in the wake of ‘deteriorating’ health of fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal.

A six-member committee of SKM, which visited the Khanauri protest site on Friday, had invited the SKM (Non-Political) and KMM for a meeting on January 15 in Patiala for unity among farmer bodies for a joint fight against the Centre to press for acceptance of farmers’ demands including a legal guarantee to minimum support price for crops.

The SKM, which had led the 2020 agitation against the now-repealed three farm laws, is not part of the ongoing agitation of the SKM (Non-Political) and the KMM.

In a letter to the SKM (Non-Political) and the KMM on Sunday, the SKM said after considering the request of protesting farmers in a meeting of its national coordination committee, it has been decided that the meeting will now be held on January 13 at 11 am in Patran in Patiala district.

The meeting will discuss details of how to carry out a joint struggle by all the three platforms, it said.

Dallewal, who is the convener of the SKM (Non-Political), has been on the indefinite hunger strike at the Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana since November 26 last year over farmers’ various demands.