Bathinda: The Punjab chapter of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) ended its week-long protest morcha on the Chandigarh-Mohali border on Monday after state agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian agreed to their demands in writing.Khudian on Monday reached the protest site and gave a written assurance to the SKM that the state govt would convene a special session of the assembly in a month to pass resolutions against interstate water agreements and seek their repeal and review from the Centre.A resolution will also be passed in the assembly for the repeal of sections 78, 79 and 80 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, and Centre will be urged to implement riparian principle, Khudian said.The assurances were based on an agreement between the state govt and the farmers in a meeting on Sunday evening.The minister also gave assurances that a resolution will also be passed to seek the repeal of the Dam Safety Act, 2021, and the newly revised Draft Seeds Bill (originally introduced in 2019 and updated as the Seeds Bill, 2025).Khudian also cleared the issue of launching a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme to settle farmers’ loan accounts with Punjab State Cooperative Banks, Punjab State Agricultural Development Banks and cooperative societies. An all-party committee will be formed to examine the issue and prepare a report for consideration.The demand for an increase in the state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane will be taken up on priority. Arrears owed by private sugar mills will be paid in a time-bound manner, while a one-window, one-payment system will be implemented in private mills, as in cooperative sugar mills.The minister also assured that a committee comprising officials and farmer representatives would be formed to examine the remaining demands and work out solutions.The Punjab chapter of the SKM had launched the protest morcha on Sep 1, which continued till Sep 7. During the week, back-channel parleys continued between farmers and state representatives, mainly Ropar Range DIG Nanak Singh, Chandigarh SSP Kanwardeep Kaur and Mohali SSP.SKM representatives, including Balbir Singh Rajewal, said that since the state govt had given the assurances in writing, they would wait for the stipulated period and review the govt’s action before deciding their next strategy. “As these interstate water agreements are highly important for Punjab, we will not let the government take the assurances casually,” Rajewal said.
