Agitating farmers from Punjab, Haryana reach near Delhi borders

Situation was tense at the border points as Delhi Police made repeated announcements on loudspeakers asking the farmers to retreat.

Chandigarh: Despite heavy security deployment, groups of agitating farmers from Punjab and Haryana reached near two Delhi borders on Friday morning after breaking police barricades on the way as part of their protest march against the Centre’s new farm laws.

The Delhi Police has enhanced deployment of security personnel, stationed sand-laden trucks and water cannons and used barbed wire for fencing at the Singhu and Tikri border points (Delhi-Haryana border) to prevent the protesters from entering the city.

Police were also deployed on Delhi’s border with Faridabad and Gurgaon.

However, two groups of farmers reached near the Singhu and Tikri borders as Delhi Police fired tear gas shells to prevent them from entering the city.

Situation was tense at the border points as Delhi Police made repeated announcements on loudspeakers asking the farmers to retreat.

“We will enter Delhi. We will get these anti-farmer laws repealed. We were welcomed at the national capital by tear gas shells lobbed by Delhi police,” said a farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab who was among those who managed to reach near the Singhu border.

Another farmer who had reached the Haryana-Delhi border point in Sonipat, asked why authorities were stopping them from holding a peaceful protest.

“We are they stopping us? Why don’t they allow us in? Don’t we have democratic right to protest in a peaceful manner? Punjabis made supreme sacrifices for the country’s freedom… Farmers meet the food needs of the nation, but today the Centre is behaving as if we are terrorists and has put thousands of security personnel to stop our peaceful march,” he said.

According to the group which reached close to Singhu border, they had taken night halts at various points and broke the police barriers in Panipat, Haryana, to reach near the Delhi border.

One more group of farmers had reached near Delhi’s Tikri border after entering Haryana from Rohtak district. The situation at Tikri border point too was tense.

A large group of farmers had camped during the night in and around Panipat, about 100 km from Delhi, while a smaller group reached the Sonipat-Delhi border using various routes.

A group of farmers from Punjab were the first to reach there while some farmers from Haryana joined them later.

Another large group of Haryana farmers led by State Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni was also headed towards Delhi after a night halt at Panipat.

A farmer leader leading a group of protesters at Haryana’s border with Punjab in Dabwali, said they will break police barriers later in the day to march ahead.

Earlier on Thursday night, a group of farmers from Punjab had halted for the night at Panipat where peasants from Haryana also joined them.

BKU leaders from Punjab and Haryana including Balbir Singh Rajewal and Charuni said the farmers’ stir has now become a “people’s movement”, drawing support from various sections of society.

Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pawan Khera met Charuni and other farmer leaders in Panipat on Friday morning and extended their full support to their stir against the farm laws.

“…Don’t farmers have a right over India’s capital Delhi? Why so much hatred towards farmers?,” Surjewala said in a tweet attacking the Centre.

On Thursday, farmers from Punjab faced water cannons and broke police barriers at the state’s border with Haryana as they pushed towards the national capital.

The Haryana Police had placed cement and steel barricades and parked trucks on the road to stop the farmers’ tractor-trolleys, some of them laden with food for the planned two-day protest, which many felt could extend further.

Ahead of the protest, Haryana had announced sealing of its borders with Punjab to prevent farmers from entering the state on their way to Delhi.

The Delhi Police had also made clear that they had denied permission to the farmer organisations planning to protest in the capital on November 26 and 27.

The farmers are demanding the repeal of the new laws which deregulate the sale of agricultural produce.

They say the laws will lead to the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system.