Farmer Union Wants Cases to be Withdrawn Registered Against Farmers

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni) national president Gurnam Singh Charuni on Thursday said as the Haryana government has failed to pull out cases registered against farmers during their 2020-21 agitation, they will now block the national highway-44 in Ambala on November 24. The farm union members had earlier planned to protest at railway tracks near Mohra in Ambala Cantonment.

Addressing the media at Chandigarh Press Club, Charuni said, “The Indian Railways has decided to withdraw all cases registered against farmers in the country. However, regardless of affirmation, the Haryana government has failed to do so. They have declared the cases untraced, not withdrawn. This means that such case files can be reopened anytime in the future, which is a breach of trust. So, the core committee has decided to block the highway instead of the rail tracks if the government again fails to withdraw old and new cases.”

The union has claimed that despite the state’s recommendation, most of the cases were pending before courts, because of which the arms licenses of the persons concerned remain suspended and passports were not being issued. Union’s national spokesperson Rakesh Bains said the meeting of a delegation with home minister Anil Vij on Wednesday in Ambala Cantonment and criticized him for misleading the public.

“The meeting pertained to a 2020 case of poor sunflower seeds in Kurukshetra and no action being taken. However, he spoke about the agitation cases and said those were being withdrawn. Now, it is being shown that the meeting was to discuss the agitation cases, which is not true,” Bains told the reporters. Charuni said if all cases were removed before November 24, there will be no protest and just a memorandum will be handed over to authorities after a public meeting.

On Wednesday, Northern Railways general manager Ashutosh Gangal, who was in Ambala, had said it was decided to pull out the criminal cases registered against the farmers for blocking the tracks.

In an explanation on Wednesday, Vij’s office had said, “During the farmers’ agitation, a total of 294 cases were registered, of which permission to cancel 163 has been received from the government and in 98 cases, the court has allowed a withdrawal. There are four cases for which permission is pending, three have been stayed by a Sonepat court and a case has been listed untraceable in Palwal. The process to withdraw the rest of them is underway.”