Farmer unions planning protest outside Parliament during monsoon session

With the Parliament's monsoon session all set to begin on July 19, the protesting farmers said on Sunday that they would ask the opposition MPs to raise the issue of three controversial agri laws inside the house every day. They said a group of around 200 farmers will protest against the laws outside Parliament every day during the session.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions, said it would give a letter to all opposition MPs two days before the session begins, requesting them to protest against the laws inside the house.

He said five people from each union would join the protest outside the Parliament.

The SKM also called for a nationwide protest on July 8 against the rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders. It asked people to come out and park their vehicles along state and national highways from 10 am till 12 pm.

Farmers have been camping at Delhi's borders since November 2020 with their demands that the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

On Thursday, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar asserted that the three central agriculture laws would bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers, and made it clear that the government was ready to hold talks with the protesting cultivators, except on the demand of the repeal of these laws.

He also claimed that most parts of the country, most of the unions as well as farmers support these laws.