Tikait has been at loggerheads with various governments on a range of farmers' issues, including loan waivers, minimum support price, power tariff and land acquisition in states such as UP, Haryana Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh.
Protesting farmer leaders in the vulnerable age group Monday said they are not afraid of coronavirus and won't take vaccine jabs, even as the second phase of vaccination drive got underway to inoculate senior citizens and those above 45 with underlying medical conditions.
He was hit on the head by a stone when he went to end a traffic jam caused by the protests.
A 45-year-old farmer from Punjab, who was a part of the protest against the Centre's farm laws, allegedly hanged himself from a tree near the Singhu border, the police said on Wednesday.
The protesting farmers dubbed the three laws as "anti-farmer" and claimed they infringe upon their basic right to sell their produce at MSP.
Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar, who is a member of Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, said on Sunday that farmers have waterproof tents but they cannot protect them from biting cold and waterlogging.
Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri as thousands of farmers have been staging their protests at the borders for nearly a month now. This has also led to traffic congestion forcing police to divert vehicular movement.
Major roads in and around Delhi including on the DND flyover and Ghazipur border were affected from the morning rush hours till around 2 pm.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday had a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava, ahead of the 'chakka jam' announced by farmer unions protesting against the three agri laws at Delhi's borders, sources said.
Ahead of their proposed tractor parade on Republic Day, protesting farmer Unions Monday announced they will march towards Parliament from different locations on February 1 when the annual Union Budget is scheduled to be presented.
A spokesperson of the paramilitary force said troops fired after they heard a "buzzing sound of a suspected flying object coming from the Pakistani side to the Indian side" around 1 am in the Panjgrain area of Gurdaspur sector.
An IED stuffed with RDX and ammonium nitrate was found inside an unattended bag at the Ghazipur flower market in New Delhi on Friday morning but it was later defused, officials said.
MV Ganga Vilas will begin its journey from Varanasi and sail around 3,200 km in 51 days to reach Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, traversing across 27 river systems in the two countries, it said.
The BJP's bucket list this time includes districts such as Sultanpur, Aligarh, Firozabad, Deoband, Ghazipur, Basti and Mirzapur -- to rename a few. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
Thousands of farmers camping at the Tikri borders are largely seen without the basic preventive measure against COVID-19 -- protective masks.
Manoj Sinha's greatest asset is his capacity to get on with everyone regardless of political affiliation, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Farmer leader Kulwant Singh Sandhu had said that 32 farmer unions from Punjab held a meeting on Tuesday and discussed the next course of action.
On Wednesday, the top court observed that the Centre's talks with the protesting farmers have 'not worked apparently' and were bound to fail, and said it will form a committee having representatives of both the sides, but the agitating leaders dismissed it as no solution.
Farmer leader Darshan Pal accused the Centre of dividing farmer organisations, but it will not happen.
Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri where the farmers have been camping.
For the past one year, an overwhelming number of farmers have been camping at the Singhu border area of Delhi, braving by turns biting cold, monsoon rains, COVID pandemic scare and also accusations of 'creating obstructions,' but the spirt of solidarity has allowed them to soldier on against all odds.
The Delhi government has approved the withdrawal of 17 cases registered during the anti-farm law stir, including one involving last year's Republic Day violence, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The tractor parades will start from the Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri border points of Delhi, but details will be finalised tonight, farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said after attending a meeting between the unions and the police.
Farmer leaders said they were making arrangements for the women coming from different parts of Punjab. Tents are being put up, a separate langar is being planned, and extra temporary toilets are being arranged, they added.
The farmers' tractor rally - Kisaan Parade - against the farm laws was expected to be held after 12 pm. However, huge crowds gathered on the borders at around 8 am.
Farmers participating in the ongoing protests against newly enacted three agri laws were not summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the government told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
"They have put these barbed wires, not us. They are not allowing people to come to Delhi. We are not the one blocking the roads. If we block roads, they ask us to vacate, but no action is taken when the same is done by these security forces," said.
While the police have kept the Haryana-Delhi border at Singhu and Tikri closed for traffic, the protest at Ghazipur, the city's border with Uttar Pradesh, has also intensified.
"It was a rehearsal for the proposed January 26 tractor parade," Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) leader Shingara Singh Mann told PTI over the phone.
An FSL team had visited the Red Fort on Saturday and Ghazipur protest site on Friday.
Tikait said that farmers under the BKU will not accept anything less than a complete rollback of the laws.
The farmers' agitation, which has entered its fourth week, has also led to traffic diversions at various border points causing inconvenience to commuters.
The ministry dismissed as "without any basis and unfounded" media reports that have used the term "Indian variant" for the B.1.617 mutant strain, which the WHO recently said was a "variant of global concern".
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a tweet said the rights to peaceful assembly and expression should be protected both offline and online.
With the Yogi Adityanath government taking credit for cracking down on criminals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.
In the wake of farmers' tractor rally turning violent, the Centre on Tuesday decided to deploy additional paramilitary troops in Delhi to restore peace and maintain law and order, officials said.
The central government has for the first time allowed a private company, Bajaj Healthcare, to process opium to extract alkaloids used to make pain-killers, cough syrups, and even cancer drugs. Two government factories in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, do the work yet, processing some 800 tonnes of opium gum annually to extract alkaloids. The government on Tuesday gave Thane-based Bajaj Healthcare an initial contract to process 500 tonnes of opium gum annually and wants production to be at 800 tonnes per annum (tpa) in the next five years, indicating the state's exit from the highly-regulated sector.
The event organisers draped large black cloth curtains on the walls of the fort to prevent photographers from taking pictures, but a media group used drone cameras to capture the wedding ceremony and were successful in getting some footage of the wedding.
Another round of discussions between the farmer unions and Centre is slated for Saturday.
Tikait claimed a few inputs had been received regarding some "miscreants trying to disrupt peace" during the "chakka jam" that was announced for 12 noon to 3 pm on Saturday.
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