Army and air force contingents have been rushed in to assist in relief and rescue operations.
'If a company contracts to buy its produce after three or four months, is there any loss in it?'
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
Armed with hope and a revolutionary poem by noted Punjabi poet 'Pash', a farmer cycled nearly 400 km from Fardikot to the Tikri border to join the massive protest by peasants against the new farm laws.
'This is going to be our home in the near future as it is going to be a long fight'
Thousands of farmers have reached the national capital on their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles, responding to the 'Delhi Chalo' call against the agri-marketing laws enacted at the Centre in September. On Saturday morning, it wasn't clear if they will agree to move to the Burari ground on the outskirts of the city, where police said they can continue with their protest. Many protesters were demanding a better venue in the centre of Delhi. Originally, the protest was meant to be on November 26 and 27.
Even media persons covering the agitation manage to reach the protest sites with difficulty as they first have to pass through checking and then cross multiple layers of barricading. A Bharatiya Kisan Union office-bearer at Ghazipur border, which now resembles a highly-secured fortress, said despite the odds, supporters from far-off places are reaching the site to express solidarity with farmers.
In total, the Centre plans to purchase around 40.7 million tonnes of wheat from farmers this year, which is almost 19 per cent more than last year.
According to Japanese financial services major Nomura, despite slowing external demand, the domestic growth cycle is improving.
Farmer leaders on Saturday said the protesting unions stand firm on their demand of a complete repeal of the three agri laws and asserted that they are ready for talks with the government, but that should be held without any condition.
UP government suspended four staffers and ordered a departmental probe into the incident.
Let the implementation of reforms be left to the discretion of individual states and ensure an end to the illogical stir, argues Virendra Kapoor.
'As of now, it is hard to see how the stalemate can be broken.' 'For the Sikh Jat farmers who constitute the core of the protest are a simple-minded but stubborn lot. 'They are unlikely to call off the stir unless provided a sense of 'victory'.' 'Give them a reason to boast that they brought the government to its knees and they will start singing hallelujahs to the Modi government,' argues Virendra Kapoor.
There had been few signs of social distancing as thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana began their protest last week against the three new agro-marketing laws, setting off on a march to the national capital.
Pansare, who was shot at and critically wounded by unidentified assailants outside his housing society after returning from a morning walk on February 16, succumbed to his injuries at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai late Friday night.
Cold wave continued unabated in the northern region today with fog enveloping most areas affecting transport services, even as three persons died and over 25 were injured in different fog-related accidents.
'There is nothing more this government can do now to break our agitation.' 'It has used all the tactics and has failed'
Behind the movement are shock-workers functioning quietly to ensure that a seemingly spontaneous, apolitical, grassroots mobilisation sustains itself without dribbling into chaos or violence. Sai Manish lists some of them.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that social distancing and staying indoors were the only ways to deal with the fast-spreading coronavirus, pictures and videos of people standing in circles and squares to buy essential items like groceries and milk in many states went viral.
The UP government has deployed additional police, including over 1,000 personnel of anti-riot forces, and ordered multiple probes -- by SIT, ADG-Intelligence -- and a magisterial inquiry.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
The two-day rally will be one of the largest congregations of farmers in Delhi, the AIKSCC has claimed.
"Centre and state will soon begin the process of giving reservation, following the Delhi High court order," Khattar told reporters in a joint press conference along with All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti chairperson Yashpal Malik.
Fear and uncertainty have returned to haunt the residents in areas along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir, where heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan Rangers has triggered migration.
The minimum temperature plunged to 4.2 degrees Celsius in New Delhi on Monday, the coldest December 22 in the last five years and also the lowest this season, even as a thick blanket of fog disrupted normal life in the city and hit flight and train operations.
'It was a deliberate conspiracy. The mob targeted large houses, burning down ACs, fridges, almirahs and furniture.'
ugar mills in UP owe thousands of crores to cane farmers.
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