The farmers in Haryana, protesting against the three farm laws recently passed by Parliament, are marching towards Delhi. Their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march is scheduled for Thursday.
Thousands of farmers have assembled with their tractor-trailers near the Haryana borders in Punjab. Farmer bodies said they will hold a dharna (sit-in protest) wherever stopped from moving towards the national capital.
Here are the latest developments on the build-up for ‘Delhi Chalo’ march:
• The BJP government in Haryana has said it will seal its borders with Congress-run Punjab for the next two days, stopping farmers on their march to Delhi. The Haryana authorities also imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in several parts of the state to prevent assembly of protesters.
• Haryana police used water cannons at least twice - in Ambala and Kurukshetra - on Wednesday to disperse protesting farmers and stop them from going to Delhi. The Haryana government also suspended its bus service to Punjab for November 26 and 27, state transport minister Mool Chand Sharma told news agency PTI. The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) too suspended its bus services to Haryana for the next two days.
• Vehicular traffic was severely disrupted at a few places for several hours on Wednesday because of the clashes between farmers and the policemen. A few Army vehicles also remained stranded in Kurukshetra district for some time due to the agitation, officials said.
{{/usCountry}}• Vehicular traffic was severely disrupted at a few places for several hours on Wednesday because of the clashes between farmers and the policemen. A few Army vehicles also remained stranded in Kurukshetra district for some time due to the agitation, officials said.
{{/usCountry}}• Braving the cold and rainy weather, thousands of farmers assembled on Wednesday along with their tractor trolleys on the Punjab side of the inter-state border. The farmers have stopped their cavalcade near Samana Bahu village of Karnal district for a night halt; they will proceed for Delhi on Thursday morning.
• These farmers, carrying ration for six months, left for the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest from Ludhiana under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Wednesday.
• In a video message on Wednesday, BKU president Gurnam Singh Charuni urged the farmers of Haryana to join the protest and ensure a huge gathering in Delhi. He also asked the farmers to break the barricades if the police try to stop them.
• Various outfits which have supported the march said that more than 1 lakh farmers will march to Delhi. They have been protesting for the past two months. “Now we will march to Delhi to demand change in the new farm laws. We will block national highways connected with Punjab,” said Harmeet Singh Kadian, farmer leader of BKU.
• BKU general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said on Wednesday that around 25,000 women will participate in the protest march and over 4,000 tractor-trailers have been arranged for it. “We are ready for the battle, which may last long,” said Kokrikalan.
• The Centre had on Tuesday invited over 30 farmer organisations from Punjab for the second round of ministerial talks on December 3 to resolve differences over the new agriculture laws.
• Parliament had passed the three agriculture bills - the Farmers’ and Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 - in September. Several Opposition parties have termed these legislations as anti-farmer.