In the wake of the call for nationwide road blockade given by farmers seeking repeal of the three new farm laws, farmers’ organisations in Dharwad district plan to stage a rasta roko expressing solidarity with the agitation in New Delhi.
The road blockade will be staged under the banner of Samyukta Horata Samiti on the national highway bypass near Dharwad on Saturday.
Laxman Jadagannavar, district committee member of Raitha Krishi Karmikara Sanghatane (RKKS), said on Friday that various organisations of farmers as well as progressive and Dalit groups would participate in the agitation and block the NH-4 Bypass Road near Yarikoppa from noon to 3 p.m.
Mr. Jadagannavar said that the BJP government has been apathetic towards the rightful demands of farmers and was bent on enforcing farm laws detrimental to the farm sector and posing a serious threat to food security. As it has been found that the laws were “framed at the behest of capitalists”, the farmers are up in arms against the government, he said. However, instead addressing the issue, the BJP and its fringe elements have been bent on defaming the protesting farmers, he said.
Village roads
Farmers’ leader and former Union Minister Babagouda Patil said that all the village roads in Dharwad taluk would be blocked in response to the call given by the farmers’ organisations in New Delhi. KPCC media analyst P.H. Neeralkeri, who has been leading an indefinite dharna under the banner Raita Hitarakshana Samiti in Dharwad for the last few days, said that rasta roko would be staged at Mummigatti by blocking NH-4.
Meanwhile, in a joint press statement, various farmers’ organisations sought the repeal of the three farm laws, withdrawal of cases against the agitating farmers, removal of the concrete structures and barricades installed by the Delhi police and clearance of the road for free vehicular movement, and immediate steps to resume water and power supply in the border areas of Delhi, where the farmers have camped.
