Farmers take part in a protest at Delhi-Haryana Singhu border in India, on Dec. 9, 2020. The farmers protesting against the three new farm laws on Wednesday rejected the federal government's proposals and threatened to intensify their stir by blocking main highways connecting nearby cities to the national capital. (Str/Xinhua)
NEW DELHI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The farmers protesting against the three new farm laws on Wednesday rejected the federal government's proposals and threatened to intensify their stir by blocking main highways connecting nearby cities to the national capital.
Addressing the media, the farmers unions' representatives announced that their protests would continue till December 14.
"We will block the highway connecting Delhi and Jaipur, & Delhi and Agra, by December 12," said the farmers' unions representatives.
While Jaipur is the capital city of western state of Rajasthan, Agra is a popular tourist destination in northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
They also resolved to avoid using mobile phone sim-cards belonging to private telecom company Reliance JIO, as a direct criticism of the federal government's bid to "favour the corporates".
The farmers argue that the new farm laws are detrimental to their interests and enacted to favour the big corporates.
On the other hand, senior leaders of the Opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M), met President Ram Nath Kovind and urged him to immediately withdraw the three farm laws.
Briefing press persons after meeting the Indian president, INC's lawmaker Rahul Gandhi said that these laws should be withdrawn especially because of the manner in which they were passed in the Parliament without consulting the farming community.
"These three new farm laws are anti-farmers. Farmers have understood that these new laws are a bid by the federal government to handover the agriculture sector to the corporates close to those running the federal government," said Gandhi.
The three farm laws passed by the country's Parliament are 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".
Wednesday was the 14th consecutive day of the farmers' protest. As many as six rounds of talks between the agitated farmers and the federal ministers have remained inconclusive. Enidtem
