EIGHT months after the victorious suspension of the historic farmers’ struggle against the BJP central government’s three farm laws, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) revived itself in its national meeting held at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on July 3, 2022. There had been two national meetings earlier, one at the Singhu border on January 15, and the other at Delhi on March 14. However, both these meetings were marked by controversy, especially over the decision of some of the Punjab kisan organisations forming two political parties and contesting the Punjab state assembly elections.

The farmers along the Satluj river have been protesting for the last 60 days outside the office of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited(SJVNL) in Luhri in the Shimla district. The kisans are on a continuous dharna. These kisans are affected by the ongoing work of the Luhri hydropower project which is being constructed by the SJVNL. The Himachal Kisan Sabha is leading this movement. On July 1, there was a big demonstration outside the office of SJVNL.These kisans are from 14 panchayats on both banks of the river.

The ruling party, BJP, in Tripura, started celebrating victory in three out of four constituencies where bye-elections were held on June 23, with physical attacks on the opposition. The BJP has chosen this victory to suppress the opposition using its miscreants in complicity with some pet police officials.

AS the third initiative in a row AIKS and P Sundarayya Memorial Trust organised the all-India workshop of apple farmers in Srinagar on June 22-23, 2022. Apple farmers from Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh participated in it along with experts from Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture – CITH, Srinagar, Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and All India Peoples Science Network.Hannan Mollah, general secretary of AIKS, inaugurated the workshop.

THE Nitish-led NDA government has taken one of the most inhuman decisions to deploy bulldozers to demolish the houses in the villages, inhabited by the poor, homeless and landless people. In recent years they have been doing it without much protest in urban areas and now they are moving towards the semi-urban and rural areas as the land prices have reached sky-high.