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Despite several clashes with the police, farmers in several Indian states have continued to march towards Delhi demanding the repeal of the controversial land reform bill.
According to Indian media outlet The Hindu, several teams from Punjab arrived near the two borders of Delhi on Friday morning, breaking through police barriers in Haryana to participate in the “Let’s go to Delhi” program.
Farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Punjab left for Delhi on Thursday to demand the repeal of the new land reform bill. Police barricades were set up in Haryana and the Delhi-Haryana border was closed to stop agitated farmers.
According to the Indian media, clashes broke out between police and protesters as they tried to march towards Delhi. Police fired tear gas and baton charges to disperse the protesters.
Two farmers ‘organizations said on Friday that the farmers’ march to Delhi continued on Friday despite police obstruction. 50,000 farmers from Haryana are expected to reach the Delhi border.
Meanwhile, tight security has been deployed in Delhi to avoid protesters.
Police have asked the Delhi government for permission to use nine stadiums in Delhi as temporary prisons amid a movement of thousands of farmers in the Corona situation. However, the Delhi government has rejected the police request.
Delhi Interior Minister Satyendra Jain said in a statement that “every citizen who protests peacefully has a ‘constitutional right’ and ‘the central government must immediately accept the farmers’ demands.”
On Friday, Haryana’s chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, assured the agitated farmers that the central government was ready to negotiate with them and solve the problem through dialogue.
Last September, the Indian Parliament passed three land reform bills. The first calls for the abolition of government-controlled wholesale agricultural markets. The second bill seeks to pave the way for contract farming at pre-harvest prices, and the third bill seeks to abolish existing government controls on traders or farmers.
Farmers claim that these new bills go against their interests. Because as a result, private companies will move into the role of drivers in agriculture. Farmers will suffer.
Most of the farmers in India sell a large part of their crops on the government controlled wholesale market at the minimum support price (MSP) set by the government.
Farmers fear that the new bill means that the MSP will not exist and that traders will lose the ability to set crop prices. As a result, they will be deprived of the fair price of the harvest.
However, the ruling BJP in India claims that farmers’ fears are unfounded. Rather, these reforms are necessary to increase production and income in the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, the agitated farmers of India have announced that they will continue their agitation until the repeal of the three bills of land reform.
