Peasants protesting have threatened to intensify their protests
Rewari (Haryana):
Haryana police and farmers protesting on Sunday came close to a clash on the Rewari-Alwar border after hundreds of protesters began marching towards Delhi to join the main agitation against the center’s controversial agricultural laws. The police reportedly fired several bursts of tear gas projectiles to stop the march.
Farmers were trying to break through the police cordon and barricades to advance further, the sources said. The police have managed to arrest them at a local bridge. “We have detained them in Masani,” Rewari Police Chief Abhishek Jorwal was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.
In November last year, thousands of Punjab farmers had to face water cannons and tear gas projectiles as the Haryana police tried to stop their protest march towards Delhi. The two sides were involved in several clashes along the way.
Meanwhile, in the Sangrur district of Punjab, police charged lathi with a group of farmers attempting to march towards a meeting chaired by BJP state chairman Ashwani Kumar Sharma.
The new momentum comes a day before the next round of farmers’ center meetings to end the stalemate.
After the farmers’ center’s sixth round of talks last week, the Union’s Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the two sides reached “agreement” on two of the four main demands. The government, the sources said, offered to withdraw the Electricity Amendment Bill and penal provisions for stubble burning in the Air Quality Commission Ordinance. However, no progress had been made on the main demands of the farmers: repealing the three laws and providing legal guarantee for the system of minimum support prices.
Farmers have threatened to escalate protests if the center rejects the two remaining demands at the January 4 meeting. They have warned that they will take out a tractor march on the GT-Karnal road on January 6.
A joint front of 40 farmers’ unions, which has been leading the protests, has also threatened to march on Delhi if the demands are not met on Republic Day.
“The government has refused to accept, even in principle, our demand for the legal right to buy at MSP. We have no alternative and if the government does not satisfy our demand before January 26, we will have no choice but to start. march peacefully towards Delhi, “his statement said on Saturday.
Farmers fear that the laws will make them susceptible to exploitation by corporate companies. They also state that through these laws, the center wants to eliminate the minimum support price system.
The government, however, says the laws are not intended to end the existing system, but to provide better avenues for farmers to sell their crops. He has promised that the MSP system will not be removed.
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