Farmers Movement Archive

Stopped from going to Delhi, farmers block Jaipur highway

Hundreds of farmers from Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and several other States, including Maharashtra and Gujarat, staged a sit-in on the the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. They blocked the carriageway towards the national capital after they were stopped by the Haryana police at the border with Rajasthan on Sunday. Led by Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha Patkar and Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav, among others, the farmers were headed to Delhi under the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a joint front of farmer unions. With the Delhi-Jaipur Highway also now blocked, all highways leading to the national capital from Haryana now have farmers on dharna seeking a repeal of the three recent farm laws. Later, Gurnam Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Chaduni), at a press conference at the Singhu border, announced that leaders of all the agitating groups would sit on a day-long hunger strike on Monday wherever they were protesting. Mr. Singh said some farmer groups had announced their support to the new laws, but they were not associated with them. “They are hand-in-glove with the government in an attempt to sabotage our movement. We are against the laws and will continue to protest until these laws are repealed,” he said. Addressing the farmers, Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) said farmers should stay alert and ensure that no unwanted or wrong elements got involved in the agitation. “If the Central government wants to talk and there’s any proposal for talks, we will constitute a committee, which will take a decision on it,” he said. Addressing the demonstrators on the Haryana-Rajasthan border, Ms. Patkar asked the government why minimum support price could not be guaranteed under the law.

The Hindu

2020-12-14

REWARI