More farmers were streaming towards the national capital on Friday in response to the call from protesting unions to intensify the on-going agitation against the three agricultural marketing reform laws by blocking the Delhi-Jaipur highway, and picketing toll plazas on Saturday. Police personnel have been deployed to deal with the situation and provide alternate routes for commuters.
For the last two weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have gathered at several points on Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. They are demanding a full repeal of the three contentious laws passed by Parliament in September.
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“More farmers have now joined the dharna sites at Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur and Palwal,” said a statement from the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee. “Farmers from Tamil Nadu have arrived and groups of farmers from almost all States of India shall be arriving to join the Delhi protest soon,” it added.
In Amritsar, thousands of farmers and farm labourers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti started a tractor-trolley ‘march’ for Delhi on Friday to ensure the ongoing agitation doesn’t lose steam. The Samiti is the only Punjab outfit which is still continuing with the ‘rail roko’ agitation, preventing the movement of passenger trains in Amritsar.
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“We started our march to Delhi after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Thousands of farmers and farm labourers from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur, Fazilka, Jalandhar and Moga districts are on the move. We are carrying all essentials including food, medical supplies and other items on our tractor-trolleys, cars, vans etc. We will stop at Shahbad in Haryana tonight and on Saturday will head towards Delhi,” Sarvan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Punjab unit of the Samiti, told The Hindu .
“Our aim is to not let the agitation on Delhi border lose its momentum at any cost. The Central government will have to bow to our demands and repeal farm laws,” he said. The new laws are meant to benefit private players and end government procurement, eventually resulting in elimination of the mechanism of minimum support price, he added.
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The Centre has maintained that MSP will not be affected by the new laws, which it claims will help increase farm income.
The Congress party also plans to hold demonstrations at the ‘Shambu border’ on December 14 in support of farmers, said the party’s State chief Sunil Jakhar.
Also read: Farmers’ protest: Delhi Traffic Police informs commuters about closed routes
Both carriageways of the Delhi-Agra Highway have been blocked at Palwal by farmers from Madhya Pradesh for the past week.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Tikait faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union is making plans to besiege toll barriers. “We will picket the toll plazas, so that the cess cannot be collected tomorrow. We will not block the road, but we will allow commuters to go through for free for one day,” said Dharmendra Malik, spokesperson of BKU (Tikait).
More than 5,000 police personnel have been deployed at several intersections and toll barriers in Haryana districts bordering Delhi.
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Two thousand police personnel have been deployed at five strategic points, including at the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal intersection near Panchgaon, to prevent the agitating farmers from blocking the Delhi-Jaipur Highway, said Astha Modi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Gurugram. The police are also ready with a diversion plan to avoid any inconvenience to commuters, she added. Additional police forces were also deployed at the Kherki Daula toll plaza, one of the busiest in the country.
Farmer unions are seeking support from local farmers in Sohna and Rewari to set up blockades, said Ms. Modi.
The Faridabad Police have deployed 3,500 police personnel equipped with riot equipment to deal with any situation, said Arpit Jain, DCP, Headquarters. Reserve Police Force personnel have also been deployed at five tolls in the city at the Badarpur border, Gurugram-Faridabad border, KGP toll plaza, Pali Crusher Zone and Dhoj.
The police said drones would also be used to keep a watch on anti-social elements and identify them.
(with inputs from Vikas Vasudeva in Chandigarh, Ashok Kumar in Gurugram and Priscilla Jebaraj in New Delhi)
