E-Paper
3-tier security in place at Khanuri border
Farmers from various parts of Punjab and bordering areas of Haryana’s Jind, Sirsa and Fatehabad continued to reach Khanauri, where farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal is sitting on a fast-unto-death for the last 10 days.
Security forces have implemented 3-tier security plan and deployed 14 companies of security forces, including paramilitary forces, armed forces and Haryana Police jawans at Khanauri- Dattawala border, where protesting farmers have been sitting for the last ten months to press for their demands. Though, the farmer leaders confirmed that there will be no foot march towards Delhi from Khanauri border and they will continue to hold peaceful protests here.
Farmers from various parts of Punjab and bordering areas of Haryana’s Jind, Sirsa and Fatehabad continued to reach Khanauri, where farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal is sitting on a fast-unto-death for the last 10 days.
Jind deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Amit Bhatia said that the police are on alert after the farmers’ gave a call to reach Delhi and section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been imposed in the district, which does not allow any protest or gathering of people.
“We have deployed 14 companies to avert any untoward situation. We have also issued a traffic advisory so that commuters do not face any inconvenience,” the DSP added.
Bhartiya Kisan Ekta president Lakhwinder Singh Aulakh said that the farmers will move on foot from Shambhu border only and will continue to hold peaceful demonstrations at Khanauri border.
Will not end fast till demands are met, says Dallewal
Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal on Thursday said that he would continue to observe fast-unto-death until farmers’ demands are accepted.
Dallewal thanked the India’s Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar for supporting the farmers’ issue. Recently, at an event in Mumbai, Dhankar had asked the union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to hold dialogue with the farmers and also asked him why the promises that were made to the farmers were not fulfilled.
Dallewal said that they have written a letter to the vice-president and appraised him about the promises made to farmer leaders.
In the letter the farmer outfits said that the farmers had to sit on roads for 13 months in 2020-21 and now they are sitting on roads for the last 10 months to press for their demands.
“In the last 10 months, one farmer was martyred in police action, five farmers’ lost their eyesight and 433 farmers sustained injuries. We are fighting for the promises that the government has failed to fulfil time and again. In 2011, the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who was the chairman of consumer affairs committee had submitted a report to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to make a law which guarantees that farmers’ produce will be procured on the minimum support price (MSP),” the letter reads.
In the letter, the farmer outfits further stated that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had promised to procure farmers’ crops at C2 plus 50% formula in the 2014 general polls and a year later, the BJP government told the Supreme Court that they can’t implement Swaminathan commission recommendations.
In 2018, when farmer leader Dallewal and Anna Hazare were sitting on dharna at Ramlila Maidan after observing 35 days of dharna at Punjab’s Cheema mandi, the then union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and then Maharashtra CM Devender Fadanvis had submitted a letter signed by minister Dr Jitender Singh to farmers in which they promised to implement Swaminathan commission reports within three months but six years have passed.
Moreover, on December 9, 2021, the agriculture ministry submitted a letter to them in which they promised to give MSP to farmers, take back cases lodged during the farmers’ movement, to give compensation to those injured in Lakhimpur Kheri incident etc. However, the government failed to fulfil a single promise.
The farmers’ said that they are ready to meet the vice-president and appraise him about the betrayals by the Union government.
