The three forums of farmer unions – Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non Political) and Samyukt Kisan Morcha – have fallen short of announcing a complete unity, saying they are in the process of reaching an agreement on common minimum ground for uniting on farmer issues.
Representatives of the three forums, comprising 66 farmer unions, met for almost five hours here on Thursday.
However, the differences between the two sides could not be resolved completely. It has been decided to call a final meeting for forging a unity soon. Till then, the protest call given by SKM for March 5 stands.
Initially, all three farmer forum leaders held a meeting for two hours, which was followed by separate meetings of SKM (Non Political) and KMM on one side and SKM on the other. These two groups discussed their issues for about 90 minutes, before they again met together for another 90 minutes.
Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), said that in today’s meeting, discussions were held to understand the exact situation and stand of all forums on all farmer issues. “The absolute unity of all farmer forums may not be possible, but we are looking at creating a common ground for raising issues which we all agree on. The differences between all farmer forums were discussed and noted down which will be further deliberated upon in our internal meetings. The process will take some time,” he said.
Harinder Singh Lakhowal said that during the next meeting there are chances of finding the common ground for unity. “We will hold our protest in Chandigarh on March 5 against the Draft National Policy Framework on Agriculture Marketing, though the Punjab Vidhan Sabha has already rejected the policy,” he said.