Samyukta Kisan Morcha urges President Kovind to remind Centre of its promises to farmers

NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Monday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, urging him to remind the Centre of its written promises made to farmers, including on a panel on MSP, and warned that the agitation would resume if they are not fulfilled.

In its letter, the SKM said that ever since it announced the decision to lift its morchas from Delhi borders, the Union government has "gone back on its promises".

"Through you (Kovind), we warn the government that it should stop testing the patience of the farmers. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has decided to observe 'MSP legal guarantee week' from April 11 to April 17."

"If the government does not fulfil its assurances till then, farmers will be left with no other option but to resume the agitation," the SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, said in the letter.

It said that Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Sanjay Agrawal, in a letter to the SKM on December 9, 2021, had promised that a committee would be formed on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

"So far, the government has neither announced the formation of the committee, nor has given any information about the nature of the committee and its mandate," the SKM said.

"We request you to remind the Union government of its written promises and get them fulfilled at the earliest and ensure justice in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident," the letter said.

The SKM had spearheaded a year-long agitation against the Centre's three farm laws.

It had suspended the stir on December 9 last year after the government revoked the contentious laws and agreed to consider its six other demands, including withdrawal of cases registered against farmers during the agitation, a legal guarantee on MSP and compensation for kin of farmers who died during the protest.