Agitating farmer groups on Thursday held a four-hour nationwide 'rail roko' agitation with the railways saying there was negligible impact on services though some trains were stopped by officials at stations as a precautionary measure.
"Now it is necessary to investigate whether there is a lapse in the security or the anger of the farmers!" Tikait tweeted in Hindi on Wednesday.
The Punjab Police chief, Gaurav Yadav, and a senior officer from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mayank Mishra, visited fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal at the Khanauri border point between Punjab and Haryana. They enquired about his health and heard his demands. Dallewal has been on a fast-unto-death since November 26 to press the Centre to accept the agitating farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP on crops. The visit came after the Supreme Court directed the Centre and Punjab government representatives to meet Dallewal and provide him medical help.
Farmers' union body the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Tuesday disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade, and alleged some "antisocial elements" infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.
Despite the prime minister's surprise announcement, farmer leaders have maintained the protesters won't budge until the three contentious laws are formally repealed in Parliament.
As the 'Delhi Chalo' agitation of farmers entered the third day on Thursday, two key border points between Delhi and Haryana remained closed for traffic, while security personnel in anti-riot gear conducted drills and mock exercises to ensure their fool-proof preparation.
Farmers were staging a protest in Tikunia village on October 3 last year against a visit of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya when four of them were crushed under the wheels of a convoy of cars. In the subsequent violence, four others including two BJP workers and a journalist were killed.
The farmers also marched along the ambulance and demanded action against those who are responsible for his death.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait claimed that the crops are not procured by the government as per the MSP.
Due to a 'Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat' convened by farmers at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Thursday, the Delhi Police has beefed up security and deployed heavy force for checking vehicles, which might lead to traffic snarls in the central parts of the city, officials said.
Chaduni is a member of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions that led an over a year-long farmers' agitation against three central agri laws, which have been repealed.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, will be holding a mahapanchayat in Lucknow on Monday in a show of strength days after the Prime Minister's announcement of repealing the three farm laws.
Punjab Police detained several farmer leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, while they were returning from a meeting with a central delegation in Chandigarh. The police also began evicting protesting farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points, which have been closed for over a year. The action comes amid concerns from industrialists in Punjab over the prolonged closure of the border points, which they say has resulted in heavy losses. The meeting between the farmer leaders and the central delegation, led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was inconclusive, but the next meeting is scheduled for May 4.
A 15-member SKM delegation met with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Krishi Bhawan in the afternoon and submitted a demand charter, farmer leader Darshan Pal said.
A group of 101 farmers resumed their foot march to Delhi on Sunday to press the Centre for various demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP). However, they were stopped at the barricading by Haryana Police who cited a prohibitory order clamped by the Ambala administration. The farmers have been pressing for various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP, a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
The "black ink and the deadly attack" cannot suppress the voices of farmers and labourers, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said after ink was thrown on him in Bengaluru.
He requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make an announcement that the farm loans would be waived, while a mechanism for the same could be worked out later.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered immediate medical aid for farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on an indefinite fast at the Punjab-Haryana border. The court also urged farmers to adopt the Gandhian way of protesting and to ensure that Dallewal's life is saved. The court has formed a high-powered committee to make recommendations to the stakeholders regarding the farmers' grievances.
"Our call of tractor march to Parliament still stands. A final decision on the future course of the agitation and MSP issues will be taken in a meeting of the SKM at Singhu Border on Sunday," farmer leader and SKM core committee member Darshan Pal told PTI on Saturday.
A team of three Union ministers will hold talks on Monday with a delegation of farmer leaders, who are planning to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.
Observing that there is a trust deficit between farmers and the government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed constitution of an independent committee comprising eminent persons to reach out to the protesters to find a solution to their demands.
Electoral politics is going to be an important part of farmer protests going forward.
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.
Punjab Police thwarted farmers' attempt to go to Chandigarh on the Samyukta Kisan Morcha's call for a week-long dharna beginning Wednesday, as multiple checkpoints were set up across the state and security stepped up at all entry points of the Union Territory.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the five-member committee to convene its first meeting within a week and reach out to the agitating farmers to persuade them to immediately remove their tractors, trolleys etc from the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana to provide relief to commuters.
The central government on Thursday sent a formal letter to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) agreeing to accept their pending demands and prompting the farmers' body to suspend their over a yearlong agitation.
Farmers protesting to press the Centre for their various demands will stay put at the two protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border till February 29 when the next course of action will be decided, their leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said on Friday.
To observe one year of the movement against the Centre's three agri laws, 500 farmers will participate in a peaceful tractor march to Parliament every day during winter session starting November 29, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said on Tuesday.
There will be a complete ban on gathering, processions or rallies and entry of tractor trolleys carrying people in the national capital as the Delhi Police has imposed Section 144 for a month in the view of intended widespread tension and 'social unrest' due to the farmers' 'Delhi Chalo March' on Tuesday.
In a statement, the SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farmers' unions, said the struggle will continue to get all demands of the protesting farmers fulfilled and all announced plans are underway.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer organisations that spearheaded the 2021 protest, adopted the resolution to "intensify the fight against the policies of the Union government to save farming, food security, land and livelihoods of the people".
Haryana Police lobbed tear gas shells at farmers from Punjab at Shambhu border between the two states as thousands of protesters stayed put there on Wednesday, the second day of their 'Delhi Chalo' march.
These 22 farm bodies were among 32 farmer organisations in Punjab which participated in the over-a-year-long protest against the three central farm laws.
The heightened security measures and restrictions have been brought into place after violence on Republic Day that left 394 policemen injured and one protester dead.
The marches will also register the farmers' protest against non-fulfilment of various promises by the government, farmer leaders said.
Tikait also said if the government continues to dismantle the resources, one day India will be known as 'Mazdoor colony' and only labour class (will be left) in the country.
Farmers from across the states arrived at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Monday early morning protesting over unemployment.
A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Punjab was allegedly thrashed and his clothes torn by a group of farmers at Malout in Muktsar district on Saturday, police said.
The protesting farmers have been staying put at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana after their "Delhi Chalo" march was stopped by the security forces.
Around 10 people were injured Saturday as police allegedly lathi-charged a group of farmers disrupting traffic movement on a highway while heading towards Karnal to protest against a BJP meeting.
