New Delhi: After 378 days, farmers protesting against the (now scrapped) farm laws and other issues on the borders of the national capital are set to return to their homes from Saturday.
The majority of the farmers will start returning to their villages in Punjab from the Singhu and Tikri borders, leaving the tents they made their homes since November last year.
While the farmers have started dismantling the tents, some have already left for their villages after the government on Thursday sent a letter promising to meet the farmers’ demands.
Some of the protesting farmers from Punjab will visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 13 to offer prayers after the completion of their successful agitation, which forced the Union government to repeal the three farm laws.
To celebrate the success of their agitation, some farmer leaders will leave for their villages on decorated tractors from the different protest sites on the borders of Delhi. For this, the farmers have arranged a 51-foot-long trolley on the Singhu border for all the top SKM leaders.
Despite some farmers already heading home, the ‘langar’ (community kitchen) started a year ago continues to function, giving food parcels to those who are going back.
While many farmers were staying in tents, some of them who had constructed temporary concrete structures have started demolishing them.
Some women, who were taking care of household chores back in the villages and didn’t meet their protesting family members for the past one year, have reached the borders to join their families on the return journey.
Almost 15 months after the farmers’ agitation began against the (now scrapped) farm laws and other issues, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions that led the protest, said on Thursday that it has suspended the agaitation after receiving positive assurances from the government on their demands. The SKM also said that it would hold a review meeting on January 15.
–IANS
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