Farmers are set to hold a tractor rally along the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district and massive jams are expected at the Delhi-Noida border, inconveniencing hundreds of commuters.
Farmers are planning to take out the tractor march along the Yamuna Expressway, Luharli Toll Plaza and Mahamaya Flyover and police have imposed traffic diversions at these places.
The Delhi-Noida border will be sealed with barricades and police will conduct checking of vehicles entering Delhi or Noida. People have been advised not to use the Yamuna Expressway and to use alternative routes or the metro to avoid inconvenience.
The development comes even as farmers have paused their march to the national capital till February 29 after a decision is made and are staying put at the Khanauri and Shambhu points on the Punjab-Haryana border.
FARMERS’ PROTEST: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa said his colleague Pritpal Singh was doing ‘langar seva’ (community service) at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border when he was allegedly dragged by the policemen from his tractor trolley and thrashed.
“He was dragged from his tractor trolley, thrashed and later admitted to a hospital in Rohtak. But, we got him shifted to PGIMER at Chandigarh,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
According to farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher, Pritpal Singh has suffered multiple injuries. “We strongly condemn the police action,” he said.
He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward and accept the demands of the protesting farmers so that the deadlock in talks between the government and farmer leaders is broken.
“The Prime Minister should also take action against policemen who indulge in such ‘barbaric acts’,” he asserted.
Former Punjab Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Captain Amarinder Singh condemned the “barbaric act of violence” against Pritpal Singh.
He urged Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to take strict action against the policemen responsible for assaulting the farmer.
On Sunday, protesting farmers held a seminar on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) policies with Pandher saying that the agriculture sector should be taken out of the purview of the WTO pact.
He said the farmers will burn effigies of the WTO and the government on Monday.
After the seminar, Pandher claimed that the WTO agreement adversely impacts the farmers. “Before 1995, India used to go according to its own independent agricultural policy, but things changed when India entered WTO,” he said.
Pandher stated that the logic being given is that if a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops is given, it will lead to spiralling of prices, “which we don’t agree will happen”.
Meanwhile, mobile Internet services were restored in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts on Sunday after they were first suspended on February 11 in view of the farmers’ protest.
The suspension was further extended on February 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23 and 24.
Officials said no fresh order has been issued to extend the suspension of the mobile Internet services in the seven districts.
According to an earlier order issued by the Home Department, the curbs were imposed “to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order in the jurisdictions of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa, including Dabwali, districts in Haryana”.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the ‘Dilli Chalo’ agitation to put pressure on the Centre to accept farmers’ demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP for crops and a farm loan waiver.
The Punjab farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
Protesting farmers from Punjab taking part in the march have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri points of the state’s border with Haryana since February 13, when their march was stopped by security personnel.
The farmers will continue to stay put at the two border points till February 29, when the next course of action will be decided, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said on February 23.
On February 21, farmer leaders put the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march on hold for two days after a protester was killed and about 12 police personnel were injured in clashes at Khanauri.