Chandigarh: Farmers, mainly from Punjab, would resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest foot march on December 14 over non-fulfilment of long-pending demands and gave a call for mass gathering at the two interstate borders along Haryana on Friday to express solidarity over completing 10 months of the protest.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told the media at the protest site on Tuesday that 101 farmers would march towards Delhi on December 14 to demand agricultural rights in front of the Parliament.
He said on Wednesday that they would pray in Sikh shrines to express solidarity with the protesters and for the movement’s success.
Protesting farmers suspended their foot march to Delhi on December 8, two days after their first attempt, after some of them suffered injuries in teargas shelling by security personnel deployed at Shambhu, the entry point of Haryana.
The farmers have been marching in support of their long-pending demands, including a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP) for crops, loan waiver, and reforms to improve conditions in the agricultural sector.
The farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha after the security forces stopped their march to Delhi.
Meanwhile, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s condition started worsening on the 15th day of the fast. According to doctors who attended to him, Dallewal’s weight is decreasing, and his blood pressure is not stable.
“The Haryana government has turned this border like the India-Pakistan border,” said a protester in one of the protest marches.
The security at the interstate border on the Ghaggar River has been heightened as a preventive measure to check for any untoward incidents.
Central paramilitary forces and the state police have also been deployed on the Haryana side of the border.
Haryana Police had asked farmers who were heading to the national capital not to proceed further and cited a prohibitory order clamped under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
On both occasions, the security forces had to use teargas shells to disperse the protesting farmers when they attempted to cross the makeshift barricades, heavily guarded by paramilitary and police personnel, by climbing on them. It was set up temporarily on the border to prevent the protesting farmers from moving ahead.
–IANS
