New Delhi, (IANS): Extending support to thousands of farmers in northern states staging protests in Delhi or over 10 days against the laws, farmers across Karnataka would join ‘Bharat bandh’ on December 8 to protest against the 3 controversial farm laws and in support of their repeal, Karnataka Rajya Riatha Sangha president K. Chandreshekar said on Sunday.
“All members of about 300 farmers’ organisations will participate in the day-long bandh on Tuesday in cities and towns across the state except in Bengaluru, where it (shutdown) will be observed on Wednesday for logistic reasons,” Chandrashekhar told reporters here.
The DMK and its nine allies on Sunday gave a call to farmer, trader, trade union, government employee and other associations to make the December 8 Bharat Bandh called by the farmer unions a success. The ten parties are — DMK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), VCK, IUML, Congress, MMK, IJK and KNMNK.
The opposition Congress on Sunday said that the party supported the proposed nationwide shutdown to protest against the three central farm laws.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) also extended support on Sunday to the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by farmers’ unions on December 8 to oppose and seek repeal of three new central farm legislations.
Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Tamil Nadu and a joint platform of 10 central trade unions have so far extended their support to the call which was made public after the fifth round of the government-farmer talks remained inconclusive with both sides adamant on their positions.
Farmer leader Nihal said that the agitation is not only of Punjab farmers but also for the whole nation.
“Since the government is not taking us seriously, we have called ‘Bharat Bandh’ and that the Ministers in fifth round of government-farmer talks on Saturday got upset with the idea of nationwide shutdown.
“All the transport and shops would be closed since morning. The transport will be opened by noon but shops will remain closed. We won’t let anyone interfere in this and would take strict action. Youth farmers from Gujarat are also joining tomorrow. Gujarat is the state of Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
Another farmer leader Jagmohan Singh said the govt has to “take back the three laws” and “we made it clear in yesterday’s meeting that this is a non-negotiable demand”.
Yogendra Yadav announced that “weddings would be exempted from the Bharat Bandh”.
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