Even as the state government on Monday evening announced the withdrawal of its land pooling policy, farmers of the Doaba region have not yet cancelled their coming protests and demonstrations on the issue.
The farmers took out a huge bike rally this morning in Jalandhar Cantt villages, Phagwara and Hoshiarpur and maintained that their mahapanchayat programme, which was to be held on August 20 at Kukkad Pind on the issue, was still not cancelled.
Even today, the farmers under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Doaba) held a bike rally which started from Kukkad Pind of Jalandhar Cantt and marched towards Kot Khurd, Kot Kalan, Nangal Karar Khan, Rehmanpur, Sodhi Pind, Alipur, Khusropur, Khera, Jamsher, Chachewal, Raipur and Hardophrala villages.
The farmers were led by BKU (Doaba) district president Sukhvir Singh. They were later joined by BKU chief Manjit S Rai, all of whom carried the yellow-green flags of the party. They also donned yellow or green turbans as they rode through the villages raising slogans against the state government and expressing their resolve of not letting the government take away their land for urbanisation.
Later in the day as the government announced to take back the policy, the farmers were upbeat. In reaction to the announcement, BKU leaders wrote on their Facebook page, “This is our clear victory. Next time the government intends to bring in such a policy, it must think 100 times. The governments have seen our reactions during the introduction of farm laws and now on land pooling. We thank the media, activists and every person of Punjab who supported us in the fight”.
Rai, who held meetings with farmers at his native Pur Hiran village of Hoshiarpur, said, “No doubt, we are happy over the withdrawal of the orders, we shall await a complete and formal withdrawal of the policy through the Cabinet, Vidhan Sabha or the Governor’s office.
All procedures adopted by the government at the time of the introduction of the policy must be reversed, only then we shall believe in what has been announced today. Till then, we are not cancelling or postponing any of our plans. We shall hold the August 20 mahapanchayat at Kukkad Pind as announced. It may, however, then take a little different shape”.
BKU (Doaba) general secretary Satnam Sahni led the bike rally in Phagwara’s Bhullarai village where too about 200 acres of land was considered under land pooling policy. Farmers of Mahalon village of Nawanshahr, who are a part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) Political, did not hold bike rally but are on the same page as BKU (which represents SKM Non-Political). Kuljinder Sahota of Mahalon too maintained, “A proper withdrawal following all legal formalities must be undertaken by the government. We cannot trust the plain statements of the government officials. We shall not relent till a cancellation move is passed through Vidhan Sabha or Cabinet.”