Police fire tear gas at farmers gathered at Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border

HARYANA: Police lobbed multiple rounds of teargas shells to disperse farmers who were approaching the police barricade at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border to resume the 'Dilli Chalo' protest on Wednesday.

To ensure law and order, Delhi police have already enforced Section 144, restricting entry of tractor trolleys and large assemblies. Meanwhile, long traffic jams were seen on Wednesday at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border due to the farmers' protest and security checks put in place by the authorities. Rapid Action Force personnel, Police personnel and Riot Control Vehicles are deployed at the Singhu Border in Delhi in view of the farmers' protest.

The morning visuals showed intense security arrangements at the Shambhu border in Ambala, Haryana, as farmers who marched towards Delhi on Tuesday clashed with the police. The protesting farmers on Tuesday were seen attempting to break the multi-layered barricades using their tractors and hand weapons.

The Haryana police, meanwhile, detained several protesting farmers. The police deployed concrete slabs, iron nails, barricades, barbed wires, and police and paramilitary personnel at Kurukshetra in Haryana in view of the 'Delhi Chalo' march by the farmers. The farmers have put forth 12 demands before the central government for which they're marching to Delhi.

The protest this time has been called by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee led by farmer union leaders Jagjeet Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher. According to the protesting farmers, the centre promised them better crop prices, after which they ended the 2021 protest.

They are demanding to enact a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission report. They are also demanding a complete debt waiver and a scheme to provide pensions to farmers and farm labourers. The farmers have also urged to scrap the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 and are demanding to reintroduce the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, ensuring consent from farmers and compensation at 4 times the collector rate.

Further, they are demanding to punish those involved in the Lakhimpur Kheri killings.An appeal to provide 200 days of employment per year and a daily wage of Rs 700 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), linking it with farming, has also been made by the farmers. Also, they have demanded compensation to the families of farmers who died during the protests in 2021 and a job for any family member has been put in place.