New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) The Congress on Monday organised nationwide agitation in all States and Union Territories to revoke the new farm sector law alleging that farmers would not get the right amount for their produce due to the dominance of private players in the agriculture sector.
The agitation was carried under the aegis of the Pradesh Congress Committees. Chief Ministers, PCC presidents, party leaders, MLAs, MPs, and party office bearers assembled in state headquarters at important and iconic sites and marched to the Raj Bhavans to lodge their protest against the ‘vicious’ legislation.
In Delhi, the workers and leaders of the Congress assembled at Raj Ghat to march to Lieutenant Governor’s office to hand over the memorandum demanding withdrawal or repealing of the new legislation, which the Congress has described as ‘black laws’.
The AICC said that the peacefully marching workers were rounded up in buses and forcibly taken away to far away locations.
In Punjab, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh , along with his ministers and senior leaders, assembled at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his birth anniversary.
After paying floral tributes to his memorial, all leaders sat on a ‘Dharna’ protesting against the way adopted by the Modi government to go ahead with the laws despite strong protest from opposition and the farming community.
In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and PCC president met the Governor at Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum. Similarly Congress leaders and workers in Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry, Telangana, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal protested and marched to the respective Raj Bhawans and submitted the memorandum. The Leaders in Maharashtra and Jharkhand met Governors and handed over the Congress Party memorandum.
At some places like Lucknow and Benaras, Congress party workers and leaders were arrested and forcibly taken away in buses. Protesters of the Youth Congress also expressed vehement opposition to the ‘anti-farmer’ laws at various places.
The AICC said that the protests were aimed at ‘making the deaf Government listen to the voice of farmers and withdraw the atrocious anti-farmers bills passed by the Central government abolishing MSP and creating corporate monopolies in the farm produce procurement sector’.
Towards the evening, Congress president Sonia Gandhi appealed to all Congress ruled state governments to explore possibilities of bypassing these legislation by passing laws in state legislatures so that farmers could be spared from the grave injustice done by the central government.
In line with the concerted opposition to these anti-farmers’ legislations, the party will observe “Kisan-Mazdoor Bachao Divas” on October 2 by holding dharnas and marches at every assembly and district headquarters across the country, the Congress said.
