The Haryana police on Tuesday fired several tear gas shells, including drones, on the Punjab-Haryana border near Ambala and Jind to prevent farmers from reaching Delhi as thousands of farmers left various parts of Punjab on their tractors. suppression Application by farmers’ organization Samyukt Kisan Morcah (Non-Political), which made several demands, including a legal guarantee of the minimum support price. The drone was also used to fire tear gas shells and keep an eye on the protesters, PTI reported. According to the report, farmers were seen carrying wet jute bags to protect themselves from the smoke emitted by the tear gas shells.
After the discussions with the two central ministers ended last night, representatives of SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha said the Center refused to accept their demands, said Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, who participated in the dialogue. that a consensus was reached on most of the issues and a formula was proposed to solve some of the problems through the formation of a committee.
SKM (Non-political) sources said that in the negotiation, the government only agreed to withdraw the cases presented against the farmers during the 2020-2021 agitation and for the rest of the demands, it wanted to form another committee. “What does it mean to agree to the only demand, which was the promise made in 2021, which has not yet been fulfilled. The government is not sincere because it was informed about the planned march to Delhi long before and the offer of talks came very late, but the farmers’ leaders still agreed,” said an SKM (non-political) leader. also said that he questioned the government-appointed commission and wanted to know the result. So far, it has claimed that it was a waste of money because the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income made recommendations. The panel should be focused “only and exclusively on legal MSP, The MSP panel chaired by Sanjay Aggarwal was set up in July 2022, eight months after the government scrapped three controversial property bills and the government recently announced that the committee held 37 meetings and seminars across the country. However, he did not even fail to submit an interim report, pointed out the director of farmers.
Referring to the Centre’s deadlock on their demands, farmers’ leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said that they did not want another commission on their demands because accepting such a commission would mean putting the matter on the back burner. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur district, said the party would implement the “Kisaan Nyay Guarantee” if it comes to power. He promised legal MSP and also the application of Swaminathan’s formula in MSP.
Chaos on roads
As the curbs erected by the Delhi Traffic Police caused chaos on several roads, even Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said he would take lawyers if they got stuck in traffic. If anyone faces any problem due to the traffic situation, “we will rectify it,” a Bench with CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra told the lawyers. While all the big farmers in Uttar Pradesh expressed their disapproval of the ‘march to Delhi’ call, the barricaded security fences at the Noida-Delhi and Ghaziabad-Delhi borders surprised commuters who could not find the farmers. Also last week, during a protest by farmers in Noida, the Noida-Greater Noida highway was completely closed due to traffic police restriction and there was chaos, although less than ten farmers with tractors were spotted under the Mahamaya flyover between 4-5 pm.
The Delhi Police sealed three Delhi borders – Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur – and set up several barricades on various roads leading to Parliament and central Delhi. Also, as a precaution, some entrances and exits of metro stations in central Delhi have been closed. The government also closed the historic Red Fort complex to visitors due to security concerns following clashes with police during a protest by farmers at the Red Fort in 2021. The Rajasthan government has tightened security checks along its borders with Haryana and Punjab and also suspended wireless internet in three places, mainly to prevent the transmission of WhatsApp, officials in Jaipur said.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court allowed the Center and both the Haryana and Punjab governments to file two separate petitions regarding the farmers’ march to Delhi. While one petitioner sought directions from the court to remove all obstructions from the highways, the other petitioner sought punishment for the protesters for blocking the highways.
In a sudden turn, the SKM (Non-Political) received support from another faction of the SKM, which wrote a letter to the state minister condemning the actions of the Haryana government against the protesting farmers. It also sought support from the SKM (Non-Political) for the February 16 Gramin Bharat Bandh, which is being called mainly by left trade unions.
