On Monday, the Farmer’s unions have declared strike all over Karnataka in order to protest against the two bills which were passed by the Legislative Assembly few days back. Farmers would be starting a protest march too against the same from Town hall to Mysore Bank Circle
The two bills namely, Karnataka APM (Agricultural Produce Marketing) and the second amendment bill called Karnataka Lands Reforms were launched by the Karnataka CM, B S Yediyurappa.
The APM bill gives permission to all the non farmers/ private people who have PAN card to start their own trade business with agriculture and the Land reform bill deregulates the lands holding by the farmers.
As a protest against the bill the state farmer’s organization has declared a strike, supported by various labours unions and political parties like the JD and the Congress. Apart from these, several private bus, taxi, goods carrier and rickshaw have extended their support by participating in the strike.
The state govt. Yediyurappa however has given assurance to the rest of the citizens that the public means of transport as well as all the shops, offices, schools etc. would remain open. He warned the protestors about strict actions which could be taken if the protest caused much of disturbance in to the state functioning.
The police commissioner of Karnataka Kamal Pant has also confirmed that they haven’t permitted anyone for the protest as well the strike instead their officials have been deployed in order to take care of the state governments notices.
According to the CM the Bill had been discussed thoroughly in a sitting with the leaders of Farmers organization; the detailed structure of the state as well as the Prime minister’s stand was made cleared to the leaders as per Yediyurappa.
