End of farmers' protest: Samyukta Kishan Morcha calls off agitation, to vacate protest sites on 11 Dec

New Delhi: The Samyukta Kishan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday called off the year-long farmers' agitation after the Centre accepted all the demands put forward by farmers. They will vacate the protest sites on 11 December.

Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said, "We have decided to suspend our agitation. We will hold a review meeting on 15 January. If the government does not fulfill its promises, we could resume our agitation."

The announcement came after the protesting farmers received a letter from the Central government with promises to form a committee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and withdraw cases against them immediately. SKM said this was a victory for the farmers who have been protesting for the last year.

The farmers will celebrate Vijay Diwas on Saturday after which all morchas and borders will be cleared, the SKM leaders told media persons. SKM said the Centre has assured that all cases registered in various states against the farmers during the protest will be taken back very soon. The Centre said it has received assurances from five states and two states have given their consents to provide ex-gratia to the farmers.

While SKM has decided to suspend its protest, farmers will, however, reconvene again on 15 December to review their demands and the action of the governments.

Soon after the announcement of the end of the protest, the protesting farmers started uprooting their tents and started going back to their villages. SKM leaders said that they will review the situation from time to time to ascertain whether the Centre has fulfilled the farmers' demands.

On Wednesday, SKM had confirmed that it had received a revised draft proposal from the Centre and they had reached a consensus and accepted the proposal. Farmers who have been protesting against the three farm laws on different borders of Delhi since 26 November last year had announced on Wednesday that they are suspending their agitation.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill on the first day of the winter session on 29 November. President Ram Nath Kovind has also given his assent to the Bill that completes the process of repealing the three farm laws.

The SKM called off a planned tractor march to Parliament on 29 November and said it would wait until 4 December for the Union government to formally respond to its demands which it had stated in an open letter to the Prime Minister.