Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers stay camped on Delhi border

Tens of thousands of farmers were still camped on the Delhi-Haryana border on Friday night, on their way to the national capital for a protest against the Centre’s three new farm laws. After a morning of tense clashes with the police, who used tear gas and water cannons in an effort to disperse the crowd, the barricades were opened in the early afternoon, and farmers invited to enter the city limits and be escorted to a designated protest site in Burari. By evening, however, most farmer groups had decided to stay put at the various border crossings overnight, and take a decision by Saturday morning on whether to head to the Burari grounds or demand a more visible and high-profile protest location. The farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have mobilised under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha banner for this ‘Dilli Chalo’ agitation. They are demanding a repeal of three agricultural marketing reform laws, which they fear will affect the system of government procurement of crops at minimum support prices. They also want the Electricity Bill, 2020, which could remove free power for farmers, to be withdrawn. On Friday, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar reiterated that the farm laws would create opportunities for farmers, and pleaded with them to end their agitation in the light of the winter chill and the COVID-19 pandemic, and instead accept the invitation for talks on December 3. The day started with hundreds of farmers from Punjab and Haryana engaged in a fierce face-off with the Delhi police at the Tikri crossing. Deployed in large numbers, the police had three layers of security in place. Huge cement blocks formed the first line of defence, followed by barricades with barbed wires, and parked trucks, trailers and small commercial vehicles forming the final security layer. The border turned into a virtual war zone with police personnel lobbing tear gas shells and aiming water cannons at farmers trying to cross over. After an hour of tense confrontation, however, the farmers stepped back to return to their vehicles to wait for more convoys to join them.

The Hindu

2020-11-28

NEW DELHI