Punjab farmers lift the Mohali blockade after a written promise of a special session

Samyukta Kisan Morcha took down its seven-day sit-in at the Chandigarh-Mohali border on 7 September after the Punjab government put its offers on paper. Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian had already spent more than three hours with union leaders at Punjab Bhawan. The farmers waited for the letter before they moved the trolleys off the Phase 11 stretch.

The letter promises a special Vidhan Sabha session within a month. The sitting is to pass resolutions seeking a fresh look at interstate river agreements more than 25 years old, and to ask the Centre to review or set them aside. A resolution will also seek repeal of Sections 78, 79 and 80 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, and a return to the riparian principle. Further text covers the Bhakra Beas management statute, sugarcane rates and a one-time settlement track for farm loans through cooperative banks and societies.

The protest began on 1 September. Farmers arrived in tractor-trolleys and parked along one side of the road near Jagatpura and Phase 11. Demonstrations also ran at junctions on Airport Road. Commuters used longer routes for a week. The blockade stayed on one carriageway rather than closing the border outright. By 8 September the road was open again.

Balbir Singh Rajewal, Buta Singh Burjgill, Harinder Singh Lakhowal, Prem Singh Bhangu and Raminder Patiala were among the leaders who met Khudian. Health minister Balbir Singh sat in on the Sunday session. Jagmohan Singh of BKU (Dakaunda) called the letter a victory and said the unions would watch the one-month clock. Rajewal said water was the demand that could not be treated as a talking point.

What the government did not sign is as clear as what it did. There is no written pledge on a C2+50 percent MSP formula, on a full debt waiver, or on withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill, 2025 or the Seed Bill, 2025. Those items stay with a joint committee of officials and farmer representatives. An Assembly resolution on the 1966 Act does not repeal a central statute. It sends a political request to New Delhi.

That is why the letter is both a settlement and a delay. The unions get a date and a venue. The state government gets the road back and a month to draft wording that can pass the House without forcing a clash with the Centre on river sharing. If the session slips, the trolleys will have a reason to return. If the resolutions pass and nothing moves in Delhi, the next morcha will be about implementation rather than a hearing.

For now the measure is local. Airport Road is clear. The committee has names to collect. The Speaker has a session to call. Rajewal's warning stands as the exit line: the unions will not treat the paper as casual.