Farmers clashed with the police in the Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand.
Dehradun:
Farmers protesting the central government’s land reforms clashed with police in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district on Friday, with dramatic footage showing protesters passing a tractor over a barricade as dozens of police tried to stop them.
A video posted on Twitter by the ANI news agency showed a large crowd of protesters confronting the police. Protesters driving a green tractor charge into a barricade, run over it and force the policemen to finally get out of the way.
#WATCH | Demonstrators protesting against the new agricultural laws drive a tractor over a police roadblock in Bajpur, Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/aI97qNcg0U
– ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2020
The images evoked attempts by police in Haryana last month to prevent farmers’ protests from reaching Delhi.
Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping near various entry points to the capital since last month against three new laws that they say will lead to the dismantling of regulated markets.
They also fear that the government will stop buying wheat and rice at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations.
Farmers unions have demanded the total repeal of the laws and warned of further unrest if their demands are not met.
Several rounds of talks between ministers and peasant leaders have failed to produce a breakthrough so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered on Friday for further talks to end the stalemate.
In a speech broadcast live to millions of farmers across the country, he tried to allay their misgivings and insisted that the laws, passed in September, would give them the freedom to sell their products “anywhere and to anyone.”
While a large number of protesting farmers are from Punjab and Haryana, their cause has found support in other parts of the country, including Uttarakhand.
Sundarlal Bahuguna, leader of the state’s famous conservation campaign, the Chipko movement of the 1970s, extended his support to protesting farmers last week.
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