Farmers Movement Archive

Police use barbed wire, spikes to cut off sites

He added that all those arrested, whether or not they stuck to the planned route for the tractor parade would receive support. Apart from this, more than 160 people have died since the agitation began over two months ago. In a written response to a question raised by 28 Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Centre does not propose to give any compensation to the families of farmers who have died during the ongoing agitation against the three farm laws. In response to another question on whether the government has any plan to repeal the laws, Mr. Tomar only said, “The recent farmers Reform Laws implementation has been stayed, at present by Hon’ble Supreme Court.” With tensions running high, Pramod Kumar Joshi, a member of the SC-appointed committee told The Hindu that his panel was yet to approach any of the protesting unions. “They have already said they will not participate in our proceedings. We will definitely write letters to them, and will also call them and convince them to talk to us as we are not the government,” said Dr. Joshi. “But we thought let things settle down, only then we will approach them. Right now, the situation is very hot, so we thought let us avoid that at this stage. Later on, we will do it,” he added, when asked about the impact of the barricades, arrests and high tensions on their consultations. The panel plans to hold three more meetings with other farmers groups this week. The Ghazipur protest site on the border with Uttar Pradesh has been boxed in by multi-layer barricading. In the midst of the metal and concrete barricades, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said farmers had dug in with the determination to stay until next October or November if need be, and have supplies being sent from their villages to support them until the Centre withdraws the three contentious agriculture reform laws. On the Haryana border at Singhu as well, farmers said they have set up supply lines with ten villages and are preparing for the long haul. The new police restrictions have also forced farmers to scramble to set up new facilities for sanitation. (With inputs from Jatin Anand and Shinjini Ghosh)

The Hindu

2021-02-03

February 03 2021 00:00 IST