New Delhi: With RLD gearing up to hold a Kisan Mahapanchayat in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday (February 5), the administration has decided to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 in the district for two months.
The prohibitory orders have been imposed to discourage the gathering of farmers in the district from February 4 to April 3, in view of the festivals Good Friday, Mahashivratri, Holi, and the upcoming board examinations in the state.
With the implementation of Section 144, the Kisan Mahapanchayat slated to be held on February 5 will not be allowed. The RLD leader, Jayant Chaudhary, earlier gave a call for the Mahapanchayat to express solidarity with the ongoing farmers' agitation on the borders of Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today met family members of a man who died during the January 26 protests in Delhi and said the government should repeal the new agri laws, instead of branding farmers "terrorists" and their agitation a "political conspiracy".
Priyanka met Navreet Singh's family and also attended a prayer ceremony for him at Dibdiba village in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur district.
She said, "If there is any bigger wrong other than the three farm laws, which the government should take back but is not doing so, it is that martyrs are branded as terrorists and the farmers' agitation is seen as a political conspiracy."
Leaders who cannot hear the pain of the poor, farmers, and countrymen are of no use, Priyanka Gandhi said after the prayer meeting for 27-year-old Singh who died after his tractor overturned during the farmers' tractor parade in the national capital on Republic Day.
During her visit, Priyanka Gandhi was accompanied by senior Congress leaders, including Uttar Pradesh party unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu. Earlier in the morning, three to four vehicles in Congress leader's cavalcade hit each other on a highway in Hapur district. No one was hurt in the incident that took place near the Gajraula area.
Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting against the laws for over two months at Delhi's border points that have been fortified with barricades, cement blocks, concertina wires, spikes, and deployment of heavy police and paramilitary personnel.
Notably, farmers are protesting against the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
(With Agency Inputs)
