CHANDIGARH: Farmers from Rajasthan and some other places gathered in large numbers on the Haryana-Rajasthan border near Rewari for their march to Delhi and sat in protest on the side of the Delhi-Jaipur national highway as the Haryana police erected barricades to stop their March.
Rewari Police Superintendent Abhishek Jorwal told reporters on the site that the district authorities had imposed Section 144 of the CrPC that prohibits the gathering of five or more people.
“We have put up barricades and we will try to stop them here,” he said, adding that, in addition to the adequate force of the Haryana police, three companies of paramilitary personnel have been deployed to ensure law and order.
Farmers were protesting in the Jaisinghpur Kheda area of Rewari, along the border between Rajasthan and Haryana (NH-48). Gurgaon is more than 70 km from the site, while Delhi is almost 80 km away.
Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav, who was at the scene, said that since the barricades were put up, farmers had no choice but to organize a sit-in.
A Rajasthan farmer who was among those who wanted to march to Delhi against the Center’s new agricultural laws said they will “force the government to repeal anti-peasant laws.
Previously, farmers had threatened to block the Jaipur-Delhi highway.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting at various border points in Delhi for more than fifteen days demanding the repeal of the new agricultural laws.
Enacted in September, the three agricultural laws have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agricultural sector that will eliminate middlemen and allow farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country.
However, protesting farmers have expressed fear that the new laws would pave the way to remove the safety buffer from Minimum support price and end the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations.
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