Punjab Farmers Meet Haryana Police Brass, Discuss Dec 6 March To Delhi – News18
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The delegation assured the police that the march would be peaceful and traffic along the route would not be blocked.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher delivers a video message regarding farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march (PTI File photo)
Ahead of their proposed march towards Delhi on December 6, a Punjab farmers’ delegation met top Ambala police officers in Haryana on Monday and informed them about the details of their plan.
The delegation was led by farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Superintendent of Police (Ambala) SS Bhoria, Pandher said the delegation informed the police administration about the route of the farmers’ march.
He said the delegation assured the police that the march would be peaceful and traffic along the route would not be blocked.
“The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. We gave details about our programme, which we have already announced to the media. We said that we would go in ’jathas’ and go peacefully. There will be no traffic blockade. We will halt on the roads at night,” Pandher said.
Asked if the Haryana authorities had given permission for the march to proceed towards Delhi, the farmer leader said, “They will hold a meeting and accordingly inform us.” Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Yamunanagar, Haryana Agriculture Minister Shyam Singh Rana said there could be no objection if a few farmers wanted to march on foot in a peaceful manner.
“But the way they held agitations in Punjab, they spoiled the economy there. We will not allow such a thing to happen in Haryana,” Rana said when asked to comment on the proposed march.
“If anyone disturbs law and order, they cannot even go four kilometres, let alone to Delhi,” the minister added.
Pandher had said on December 1 that a group of farmers would march towards Delhi on Friday, even as he lashed out at the Centre for not holding talks with the protesting farmers for resolving their issues, including a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Speaking to reporters in Kurukshetra, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said the Congress had spread a lie that the Centre wanted to end the MSP mechanism for farm produce.
In reality, the government has not only been continuously procuring crops at MSP but also increased it, he said.
In Haryana, 24 crops are being procured at MSP, Saini said and added that the farmers should hold a dharna in Punjab and Congress-ruled states where MSP was not provided.
Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the government should talk to the farmers over their demands and find a solution.
“Everyone has the right to protest in a peaceful manner,” Hooda told reporters in Delhi.
“The main demand of the farmers is that the Centre should give a legal guarantee on MSP. In Haryana, the government says they are giving MSP for 24 crops… There are not even 24 crops in Haryana. I asked them to name those 24 crops on which they are giving MSP,” the Congress leader said.
Besides a legal guarantee on MSP, the farmers are demanding farm loan waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases, “justice” for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
Pandher told reporters in Ambala, “If we are allowed to go to the Ramlila ground or Jantar Mantar in Delhi or if we are stopped at the Singhu border, we will see where we get a place to sit and accordingly we will shift our dharna from here (Shambhu border).” Sharing details about their plan to march towards the national capital from Shambhu, Pandher had said on December 1 that the first “jatha (group)” would be led by Satnam Singh Pannu, Surinder Singh Chautala, Surjit Singh Phul and Baljinder Singh.
The group will carry essential items and peacefully head towards Delhi, he had said.
The farmers will walk from 9 am to 5 pm and spend the nights on the road.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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