Tikait extends support to agitating farmers in Noida

Aligarh (UP), Dec 3 (PTI) Slamming the arrest of agitating farmers in Noida, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday warned that the ongoing protest led by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha "would turn into a nationwide agitation of farmers".
     Tikait asserted that the moment the farm leaders of Gautam Buddh Nagar call for help, "we will immediately respond". The BKU leader, who was in Iglas here on Tuesday in connection with a private function, was speaking to media persons.
     Gautam Buddh Nagar Police on Tuesday arrested more than 160 protesting farmers, including the president of Bharatiya Kisan Parishad Sukhbir Yadav 'Khalifa', who were holding a sit-in at the 'Dalit Prerna Sthal' in Noida after their march to Delhi on land compensation and other demands was stopped a day earlier.
     On Monday, the protesting farmers had gathered from different parts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday on the call of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and had threatened to resume their march to the national capital if their demands were not met within seven days.
     "This agitation would turn into a nationwide agitation of farmers who are protesting against the unjust manner in which farmlands are being acquired by the government without paying just and full payment to the farmers," Tikait said here.
     He said that the Gautam Buddh Nagar protest has been put off till December 9 to give the government some time to resolve this long-standing dispute between farmers in that district and the authorities which had been continuously delaying the process of payment of full compensation as envisaged by the Land Acquisition Act 2013.
     Tikait said that the farmers of Gautam Buddh Nagar are not alone in this protest and representatives of different farmers' organisations have been stationed there to assist them in their quest for justice.
     He said it has become a regular practice of the present government to acquire farmlands at low prices and to add to the farmers' woes, even the agreed amount of compensation is delayed inordinately.
     "I will shortly be visiting Gautam Buddh Nagar to converse with the local leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha during their ongoing negotiations with officials of the state government," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)